They get to the plantation house, once a fine, well-kept mansion but now a wreck among ruined grounds. Two black men, Sambo and Quimbo, Legree's overseers, come to greet the wagon with several dogs, and Legree tells the newcomers they had better behave, for the dogs would be happy to eat them. Legree presents Sambo with the older woman he has just acquired, saying he has promised to bring him a woman; when Lucy (as her name is) protests that she has a husband, Legree tells her to shut up. He takes Emmeline into the house, and Tom sees a woman's face at the window and hears an angry voice, with Legree responding that he'll do as he likes. Tom is taken to a crude shanty without furniture, and Sambo tells him he may sleep there, not in private, as Tom had hoped, but with many others.
Late in the evening, the slaves return from the fields and must grind, mix, and bake their dried corn over an open fire for their supper. The strongest go first, for these slaves are so desperate that they show no regard for each other. Sambo tries to make Lucy grind his corn and cook his supper, and she says she would rather die than live as his woman. Tom waits until very late to get access to a mill, and then he grinds corn and builds up the fire for two weary women. After their meager meal, the women go to their huts, and Tom sits by the fire; he feels his faith tested by his hardships. He goes back then to his hut and finds that the floor is covered with sleeping men. He is cold and tired, so he wraps himself with a ragged blanket and sleeps. He dreams that Eva is reading to him from the Bible, and he wakes comforted.
