|
|
"Mature Content Warning!" |
| “ | Pay away, 'till he gives up! I'll take every drop of blood he has, until he confesses! | „ |
| ~ Legree ordering Sambo to whip Tom to death. |
Simon Legree is the main antagonist of the classic anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin by the late Harriet Beecher Stowe.
He is a sadistic plantation owner who treats his slaves with unimaginable cruelty, including whipping them nearly to death and forcing them to hunt and kill each other. He is an allegory for the cruelty and injustice inherent in the slave trade.
What Makes Him Pure Evil?[]
- In his youth, he despised his mother and all of her good treatments to make him a decent man, following his hard-tempered, abandoning father's steps, thus leaving his mother to seek his fortunes at sea to work with the pirates in West Indies.
- Although he felt some grace when his mother begged him with her last effort to make him a good man, he chose evilness by brutally swearing and beating her, leaving her for good.
- Burned his mother's letter and hair she sent to him, in which she stated that she blessed and forgave him despite everything he had done, and refused visiting her on the deathbed.
- He is the worst slave trader shown in the novel standards. While other traders either treat their slaves well or not behave them too badly at least, Legree is a pure sadist who sees his slaves as nothing more than feelingless objects to be used or abused as he pleases.
- Has a mentality to make his slaves unemotional and distant from spirituality, religion and everything that would make them feel better, constantly torturing, beating and starving them to break their spirits and make them obedient.
- Constantly forces his slaves work under horrid conditions, providing them ruinous and stuffless shelters and leaving them starved, frequently letting his slaves die and replacing them with cheaper new ones.
- Behaved Cassy horribly for five years, making her see horrible things she can't even talk about, even raping her and forcing her to be his mistress at a point.
- Being a rapist, it is most likely that he also raped other women, as it is stated that few years before Tom's arrival, a woman, who had incurred Legree’s displeasure, was confined the garret of Legree's house for several weeks and suffered from horrible things that resulted with her death, but not defined and left ambiguous, so might include rape.
- It is stated by Cassy to Emmeline that slaves trying to escape from Legree's cruelty are tortured and killed in gruesome ways she even couldn't tell. One of the ways is tying the escapee to a tree and burning them alive while they are screaming in agony, which Cassy hasn't been able to get out of her head for weeks and weeks.
- Had his bulldogs systematically trained in savageness and brutality, making them bloodthirsty creatures, attacking slaves when their owner ordered to do so. It is stated by Sambo that one of the slaves named Molly carries scars made by bulldogs, so it is clean that those dogs scarred multiple people and most likely even killed some of them.
- Trained two of his slaves Sambo and Quimbo as brutal as his dogs, making them heinous principal hands on the plantation, and also playing them off against each other to make them more savage.
- Steals all of Tom's belongings when he buys him as a slave, tosses his trifles which Tom uses to amuse Eva and keeps as souvenirs, and replaces his clothes with ragged ones.
- Constantly tries to break Tom's spirit by torturing and behaving him under awful conditions, just to fail every time which eventually caused him starting to raise a fear and envy for him and his efforts to stay saint.
- At the plantation, he gives his slave Lucy to Sambo, despite Lucy’s protests that she already has a husband.
- Tries to force Tom whipping Lucy and makes Sambo and Quimbo brutally beat him when Tom refuses to do so.
- Plans to replace Cassy with the fifteen-year-old Emmeline once he tires of the former, sexually approaching the latter and even allegedly raping her when considering him taking Em to his house several times, and her fear of him.
- Has his people hunt down Cassy and Emmeline when they run away from the plantation, and lets them shoot Cassy if they catch her but specifically orders them to keep Em to make her his new mistress.
- Tries to make Tom hunt down and kill the two runaway women, and reveal about their whereabouts.
- Orders Sambo and Quimbo to torture Tom to death when the latter refuses to help Legree, causing his painful death. His action of torturing Tom even makes the two subordinates disgust for him and redeem eventually. Although he feels some reluctance when seeing Tom's modesty and endurance, he immediately subverts it.
- Mocks about Tom's death to George Shelby, calling Tom a 'dead n--er', and brags about having no witnesses when Shelby says he will bring Legree to justice, making the latter angry and knock Legree, who acts cowardly after getting beaten.
- Never feels remorse for his crimes and instead drinks frequently in order to get rid of the "ghosts" haunting him, being an imprudent and reckless drunk, eventually sickening himself to death.
Trivia[]
- While Simon Legree is presented in Harriet Beecher Stowe's original novel as a sadistic monster, early theatrical renditions of the novel characterized him as a harmless, comical buffoon in order to avoid offending white audiences of the day, many of whom at least tacitly approved of slavery. Thus, Legree isn't Pure Evil in those theatrical renditions.
- Simon Legree is often considered as the archetype of the cruel slave master in fictional slave narratives.
- Whilst somewhat exaggerated, Legree does illustrate that slave owners in the United States were indeed allowed complete freedom to commit atrocities against their slaves without repercussion from the law.
- Due to the Christian themes of the novel as well as Legree's atrocities and rejection of any opportunities at penitence, it is certain Legree will be going straight to Hell.
External Links[]
- Simon Legree on the Villains Wiki