The scene shifts to Uncle Tom’s cabin, where Tom and Chloe are about to be parted. The children are enjoying the festive meal (Tom’s last breakfast at home) until their parents’ unhappiness demonstrates that this is an unhappy occasion. Mrs. Shelby appears to tell Tom goodbye and assure him that she will try to buy him back, but she breaks into tears before she can speak, and Chloe joins her, as do the children. Haley comes in and takes Tom to his wagon, shackling his ankles. Shelby is not there, nor is young George; the boy, visiting at a friend’s house, doesn’t know that Tom has been sold. At a blacksmith shop, where Haley has stopped to have a set of handcuffs enlarged, George Shelby rides up and assures Tom that, if he were a man, this would not have happened. Tom and George make their farewells, and George gives Tom a silver dollar on a cord to wear around his neck, apparently George’s cherished possession. George and Haley exchange unfriendly words, and the trader drives off with Tom.
