Description
Early twentieth-century hand-tinted postcard depicting a staged scene from a touring production of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, in which Uncle Tom is sold to the cruel Simon Legree as his wife, Aunt Chloe, kneels in grief. Such Tom Shows—popular theatrical adaptations of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s 1852 abolitionist novel—toured widely across Canada and the United States, with souvenir postcards like this one promoting performances. Though rooted in an antislavery message, later productions often relied on racial stereotypes, reflecting changing public attitudes toward race and entertainment in the early 1900s.