In order to understand this simplicity and confidence in Tom's character, it is necessary to understand something of the Christianity in which Stowe herself was so firmly rooted. Traditional Calvinism, the religion of Stowe's childhood, holds that the "elect" — those whom God has chosen to be saved — can do nothing of their own will to change their chosen status, nor can those who are not among the elect do anything to change their situation. A person's actions show in which group he or she belongs. Stowe apparently did not subscribe completely to this theory; the "election" of many of her characters (Augustine St. Clare, for example) appears to be up for grabs, something to be settled, if not by the person's own good or evil deeds, then at least by prayer while the person is still alive. But Tom himself is obviously among the elect; this is shown by his bearing and his spiritual power for good upon others as well as by his own confidence and in the specific signs of grace that he receives — for example, the vision of Christ he experiences when tempted to despair on Legree's plantation. His election makes Tom a very strong character, but it also ensures that he will not change, as people like Cassy, St. Clare, even Legree change when Tom touches them.
Finally, it is important to recognize that Tom's passivity is not a character flaw, not a failure to act when he ought to act, but really a kind of action, a species of resistance and of what our century would call "existential choice." With each of his masters, from Shelby to Legree, Tom is pitted against materialism, which is the basis of slavery. Even in its most benign form, as manifested in St. Clare, this materialism denies the spiritual, denies human love, turns every human connection or virtue into something to be used for profit — the "making" of money (which is not really made but is extracted from the bodies and souls of those who are turned into things for this purpose).
