Tom soon becomes familiar with what is expected of him on Legree’s plantation. He is quiet, diligent, and—despite his disgust with what he sees—trusting in God and hopeful of somehow escaping this life. Legree hates him, for he recognizes Tom’s moral superiority and sees that he cannot be manipulated. So Legree determines to break Tom’s spirit.
One morning a strange woman appears in the field, working alongside Tom. The others jeer at her for having to work, saying they hope to see her flogged, but she works easily and efficiently. That same day, Lucy is obviously ill and in need of help, so Tom puts some of the cotton from his sack into hers. Sambo, overseeing them, kicks and abuses Lucy, and as soon as he turns away, Tom gives her all of his cotton. She protests, saying he’ll be punished for this, and he replies that he is more able to stand that than she is. The strange woman, hearing this, gives Tom some of the cotton from her sack but tells him that he doesn’t know the place; in a month, he will not be so kind.
That evening, Sambo tells Legree that Tom is helping Lucy and will cause trouble with the others. Legree tells his overseers that they will have to break Tom in. On the pretext that Lucy’s cotton basket is underweight, Legree orders Tom to flog her; Tom refuses. Legree loses his temper and asks if Tom does not belong to him, body and soul. To this, Tom replies that Legree has bought his body but could never own his soul and says that Legree can’t harm him. Legree gives Tom to Sambo and Quimbo to be punished.
In Chapter XXXIV, Tom, injured and bleeding, lies alone in the gin-house, trying to pray. The strange woman from the field, Cassy, gives him water and dresses his wounds. She tells him he has been brave but that he must now give up; there is no God, she says, or if there is, He is set against them. The other slaves, she says, are not worth his suffering; they would turn against him in a minute. Tom says he has lost everything else, and he refuses to lose his soul. She tells Tom he will be tortured to death if he does not give up his resistance to Legree, and he replies that he will be dead then and beyond hurting. Then Cassy, thinking of Emmeline, tells Tom her own story.
In Chapter XXXV, Legree sits in his cluttered house, drinking punch and regretting having let Sambo talk him into punishing Tom, who now is unfit to work. Cassy hears him and sneers at him; she reminds him that he fears her, and with reason. The narrator tells us that Cassy has a sexual hold over Legree, but that he also fears her because he suspects she is insane, which in his superstitious mind amounts to possession. Cassy has taken Emmeline’s side against him and has worked in the field for a day to prove to him that she doesn’t fear his threat to send her there. Legree admits that he was foolish to have Tom whipped so severely but says he is determined to break Tom’s spirit. Just then Sambo comes in with something he has found while flogging Tom; he says this is a charm Tom wears against feeling pain. Actually, it is the silver dollar given Tom by young George Shelby, together with the lock of Eva’s hair. The lock of hair curls around Legree’s finger and he screams in fear, throwing the thing into the fire. At this point Cassy goes out to tend Tom—the action of the previous chapter.
The narrator explains what has troubled Legree. It seems that he was well brought up in New England, by a kind, Christian mother, but he turned against her and went to sea, leading a life of depravity. His mother continued to pray for him, but when he next saw her he cursed her, choosing his sinful life once and for all. Soon he received a letter telling him of his mother’s death and containing a lock of her hair. He was horrified, burning the hair and living in dread of his mother’s ghost. Now, not knowing whose hair Tom had kept, he feared it as his mother’s hair. His house begins to frighten him, and he tries to rouse Emmeline. She will not answer, however, and he is afraid to go upstairs after her. He starts up, but hears Emmeline singing about the Last Judgment; in fear and horror, he goes back downstairs. At last he calls in Sambo and Quimbo, and the three get drunk together; Cassy, returning, looks in at them and wonders if it would be sinful to kill Legree. She then goes upstairs to call upon Emmeline.
In Chapter XXXVI, Emmeline is sitting up, frightened of the noise of the drunken men downstairs. She asks Cassy if they couldn’t escape, but Cassy tells her this has been tried; even if one could survive in the swamps that surround the plantation, the dogs would find her. She implies that Legree has had would-be escapees burned at the stake. She tells Emmeline that the best thing for her would be to drink Legree’s brandy, which would make it easier for her to give in to him—something she apparently has not yet done. (How Emmeline has managed to avoid Legree’s advances so far is not explained, but one might infer that he wants to force her willing compliance, rather than simply rape her; also, it is implied that he is afraid of Cassy in this regard, as well as in other matters.)
In the morning, Legree wakes from a night of horrible dreams. Cassy comes into the room and tells him he had better leave Tom alone. She says she’s done what she could for Tom; Legree paid $1,200 for him, she reminds him, and he ought to be more careful of his property. Legree sees the wisdom of this but says Tom will have to beg his forgiveness. Legree goes to see Tom, kicks him, and orders him to get on his knees and beg pardon. Tom refuses, saying he will do whatever work Legree orders but will not do what he knows to be wrong, though he be killed for refusing. Legree flies into a rage and knocks Tom down with his fist, but Cassy comes up behind him, and he remembers his fears of the previous night. Saying that he will break Tom eventually, Legree leaves. Cassy tells Tom that, now he has won Legree’s ill will, the man will dog him until he has bled him dry.
