Chapter 17 is another of my favorites. I once read a critique of Uncle Tom's Cabin where George Harris was compared with George Washington. So when I read George's vow to freedom that's what I think of. George Washington fought for America's freedom. George Harris at face value fought only for his own. But through Stowe's words, he fights for all Africans who just want to be free to protect their families and live as they choose to.
When George Harris says, "A Mr. Harris, of Kentucky, did call me his property. But now I'm a free man, standing on God's free soil; and my wife and my child I claim as mine," I think of the great speeches of George Washington's. They both stood fighting to be free.
The connection becomes a bit more obvious when he says, "I know very well that you've got the law on your side, and the power...But you haven't got us. We don't own your laws; we don't own your country; we stand here as free, under God's sky, as you are; and, by the great God that made us, we'll fight for our liberty till we die." I get goosebumps.
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