Shelby's sale of Tom and little Harry is the action that sets both main plots in motion, the first being Tom's story as he is taken south, sold, and eventually resold; the second (which gets well underway before the novel focuses on Tom) being the story of Eliza's escape with her family to Canada.
We are also introduced here to two of the book's major themes: the effect of slavery upon morality and the family, and the strength of Christianity as a powerful force by which the individual who lives in Christ's grace may overcome all adversity. Although Tom is present in the chapter only by reputation, we learn that Tom is a Christian man, from which his other strengths and virtues flow. Haley's insistence that no "nigger" can be truly honest and his apparent belief that religion and the appearance of religion are the same thing hint at the tension between Tom's spirituality and the materialism of his owners that will become central to the novel. The second theme is introduced as Shelby prepares to separate Eliza from her child, which the narrator makes plain is not something he chooses to do but something the law regarding slaves as property forces him to do. The most unnatural and immoral act possible is the separation of mother and child, and this is what slavery, which regards human beings as articles of property, not only allows but actually requires. Moreover, Haley suggests another of slavery's immoral functions when he tells Shelby that Eliza would sell well in New Orleans; he would sell her into sexual slavery. He does not state this intent for little Harry, but we will learn that both Mrs. Shelby and Eliza are well aware of this possibility for young boys as well as girls.
