A growing source of silent era film information. This listing is from The Progressive Silent Film List by Carl Bennett. Copyright © 1999-2025 by Carl Bennett and the Silent Era Company. All Rights Reserved.

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	Lobby card for the rerelease version: Silent Era image collection.

Cast: Edwin R. Phillips [Uncle Tom], Florence Turner [Topsy], Mary Fuller [Eliza], Flora Finch [Ophelia St. Clare], Genevieve Tobin [Eva], Carlyle Blackwell [Shelby], Matty Roubert [Little Harry], Marion Oramount [Little Eva], Charles Chapman [Mr. Haley], Frank Alexander [Arthur Shelby], Grace Bainbridge [Mrs. Shelby], Tefft Johnson [Simon Legree], Julia Swayne Gordon [Cassie, the housemaid], Elsie Albert [Emmiline, the quadroon slave], William R. Dunn [St. Claire], Marie French [Mrs. St. Claire], Richard Storey [George Shelby, as a boy], Edward Thomas [Phineas, the Quaker], Ralph Ince, [?] Julia Arthur?, [?] Maurice Costello?, [?] Charles Kent?, [?] Norma Talmadge?, [?] David Wall?, [?] Earle Williams?, [?] Clara Kimball Young?

The Vitagraph Company of America production; distributed by The General Film Company, Incorporated. / Scenario by Rollin S. Sturgeon [?] + [Eugene Mullin]?, from the novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe. / Released 26 July 1910 (part one); 29 July 1910 (part two); 30 July 1910 (part three). / Standard 35mm spherical 1.33:1 format. / The film was rereleased in the USA [?] (at five reels)? by The W. Griffith Company.

Drama: Historical.

Synopsis: [The Moving Picture World, 6 August 1910, page ?] The incidents of this story are some of those preceding and leading up to the Civil War in 1861 and the Declaration of Emancipation. The central figure in the drama is Uncle Tom, a slave in the possession of the Shelbys of Kentucky. Tom is a peculiarly extraordinary character, possessing all the virtues and none of the bad qualities of his race, a possession brought about by a gradual realiz oation, absorption and practice of Christian principles through a close study of the Bible. To the Shelbys, he is an invaluable asset, because of his honesty and trustworthiness. Mr. Shelby, although owner of vast estates, has become greatly involved in debt, as is often the case with aristocracy. His notes have come into the hands of a slave trader named Haley, who presses Shelby for money long overdue. While visiting Shelby on one of his periodic “duns,” he agrees to purchase “Uncle Tom” and Harry, a child of a quadroon, Eliza, Mrs. Shelby’s maid. It is a hard bargain, but necessity, which is apt to drive to extremes, succumbs, and the deal is made. Eliza overhears the transaction, and, loving her child with all her heart, decides to flee with him to the Ohio side of the river. She escapes from the house during the night, goes to “Uncle Tom’s” cabin and tells him and his wife, “Aunt Chloe,” all about her trouble, and also that Tom has been sold to the slave dealer, and advises him to get away while there is yet time. Tom, feeling it his bounden duty to live up to the tenets of his sale, as well as his own conscience, refuses, but blesses Eliza and wishes her Godspeed. When Haley discovers the flight of Eliza he is frantic, and, calling into service some of Shelby’s slaves and the ever-ready bloodhounds, he starts in pursuit of his prey. Eliza has made her way with her dear Harry clasped to her bosom to the banks of the Ohio River in a driving snowstorm, with the piercing cold winds carrying the baying of the bloodhounds to her ears as they follow mercilessly in her tracks. The ferryboats are not running, and the boatmen who usually ply their traffic across the river are afraid to encounter the fierce storm and the ice floes at the risk of their produce and their own lives. Spurred on by mother love and courage born of liberty and protection of the helpless, Eliza unhesitatingly jumps down the river’s bank onto a large cake of floating ice, which rafts her down the stream, then from one piece of ice to another she leaps like a deer until she reaches the Ohio side of the river, where she is assisted up the bank and seeks shelter for herself and child. Haley and his negro aides are baffled in the capture of their quarry. Haley is furious, the negroes delighted, and while Haley goes to the tavern to appease his wrath, the darkies show their pleasure in fits of laughter, and return to the Shelby place to report Eliza’s escape. Haley, after a night of it in company with Marks, the lawyer, and Tom Rorer, a human bloodhound, goes back to take possession of ‘Uncle Tom,’ by the sale of whom he hopes to make up the loss of Harry. Uncle Tom, after a last farewell to his wife and little pickaninnies, and a hearty good-bye from young “Mars” George Shelby, who promises he will purchase “Tom” himself some day, gets into Haley’s wagon, shackled hand and foot, with a sad heart but Christian resignation, bids farewell forever to his old Kentucky home. / Haley, with Uncle Tom and his other slaves, boards the steamboat and starts down the Mississippi for Louisiana. On the boat going home from a visit to Vermont is Mr. Augustine St. Clare with his little daughter, Eva, a beautiful child of delicate temperament, and a maiden aunt named “Miss Ophelia.” On the way down the river, poor Tom makes himself helpful and cheerfully obliging to everybody, lending a hand with the freight and saying a kind and courteous word whenever spoken to. Whenever he can find time he reads in his laboring way his Bible, which is a source of great comfort to him. Eva is especially attracted to Tom. He has his pocket stored with odd toys of his own manufacture, which furnishes her great amusement during the long and tedious progress of the boat. One day Eva falls overboard. Uncle Tom, with unhesitating courage, jumps into the river and brings her safely back to the boat. This cements her attachment for Tom. She begs her father to buy him for her own. The father, always ready to satisfy Eva’s every wish, makes a deal with Haley, and Tom is purchased for Eva, who makes him her companion and attendant. “Miss Ophelia,” although a northerner, is shocked at the readiness with which Eva associates and confides in Tom, but as she learns afterward, it is not misplaced and well deserved. The St. Clares arrive at their home in New Orleans. Tom is initiated as a member of the household, and while officially the coachman, he is personally the bodyguard of Eva and he is her confidant “fides achates.” We can see the sensitive nature and constitution of the child gradually succumb to the climatic changes, and the rackings of the severe cough and cold which has settled upon her lungs. Her father decides to move the family and household to his country home where he hopes Eva will improve and get well. It is here we are introduced to “Topsy,” a coal black little negress whom St. Clare buys for “Miss Ophelia” to call her own and bring up in the way she would have her go. From this time on to the close of the film, “Topsy” is a noticeable and amusing person. For two years Uncle Tom’s life with the St. Clares is an uninterrupted dream, excepting the thoughts of his separation from his dear old wife and his children. After two years, little Eva’s illness becomes so bad she appears to be undergoing a process of translation and looks more like a vision of immortality in the midst of mortal things. Often she talks with Uncle Tom about Heaven with an understanding that makes Tom think, and everybody else for that matter, that she is not long for this world. These suppositions are well founded, for it is not long before Eva is seen on her bed surrounded by her parents, Aunt Ophelia, Uncle Tom and the servants of the family. She bids each one good-bye, giving each some little keepsake, then peacefully passes away to join the other angels in Heaven. / The sorrow following the death of little Eva has scarcely passed when the house of St. Clare is again thrown into mourning by the death of Mr. St. Clare, who was stabbed while trying to stop a quarrel between two men. Mr. St. Clare had promised Uncle Tom his freedom, in anticipation of which he is inspired with new hope and great ambition to work for the liberation of his wife and children, but all this is doomed by his master’s untimely end, and all the servants of the St. Clare place are sold to speculators and other masters. Tom is sold to Simon Legree, who is brutal in the extreme and treats poor Tom with little less consideration than a dog. Legree has established as his mistress Cassie, a quadroon slave, whom he treats as badly as he dares, for she has a strong influence over him and despises him with a heartiness that she cannot hide. One day, working in the cotton field, Cassie meets Uncle Tom, and is impressed by his generosity and gentleness of spirit and his all-abiding faith in God. At the same time Legree bought Tom, he bid on a young mulatto girl named Emmeline, whom he also introduced into his household to displace Cassie, whom he tries to relegate again to the cotton-picking rank of slaves. Emmeline likes Cassie, abhors Legree, and keeps as far from him as possible. Tom is subjected to every sort of indignation and uncomplainingly does his duty. It is not until he is asked to flog a poor slave girl that he refuses to obey his master, and is himself unmercifully whipped by Legree and two of his slaves. Cassie finds life with Legree unbearable, and hates him with an indescribable intensity. She plans to accomplish escape for herself and Emmeline, and asks Uncle Tom to go with them, but he refuses to leave while others suffer for no more reason than himself. Cassie plays upon Legree’s superstition and fear, for, in reality, he is an arrant coward, and she makes him believe there are ghosts in the garret of his house, and when she and Emmeline take flight and he pursues them with bloodhounds and slaves, the women retrace their steps, after passing through the swamp to throw the dogs off the trail, and return to the garret, where they remain for three days and make good their escape when favorable opportunity presents itself after Legree has given them up as gone. Filled with rage, Legree, for want of better excuse, accuses Uncle Tom of knowing something about Cassie’s escape and being party to it. Tom denies that he had any hand in it, and refuses to reveal his knowledge of it. Legree vents his spite and cussedness by administering a severe beating to Tom and felling him with a savage blow. Young Shelby, who promised Tom at the time his father sold him to Haley that he would repurchase him as soon as he could, now comes to Legree’s place to buy him back. Too late! Poor Tom has gone to his eternal freedom to dwell with his Master, who makes no distinction in color, creed or class and prepareth a place for all those who love Him and keep His Commandments, and of whom Tom was a faithful disciple.

Reviews: [The Moving Picture World, 6 August 1910, page ?] The first of a series of three reels, each approximately 1,000 feet, and intended to adequately present this powerful and fascinating drama. This reel depicts the escape of Eliza and the removal of Uncle Tom from his old home in Kentucky. Most of the salient facts in the story up to that point are graphically produced. It is scarcely necessary to go over the story. It is well known to practically every one. The staging is adequate and the actors have caught the spirit of the original story and develop their parts with a skill and intelligence which must be seen to be appreciated. While the story has lost most of its power with the removal of the reason for its existence, it still has a fascination which few are able to resist, and in this film that fascination is retained. It is a picture of power, and deserves all the applause which it receives. The producing firm deserves commendation for the sympathy and excellence of its work. • [The Moving Picture World, 13 August 1910, page ?] The second film illustrating this once popular story. It carries one forward to the death of Eva, showing the affection of Eva for Uncle Tom, the purchase of the old negro by St. Clair, the appearance of Topsy, and finally Eva’s death. The staging and scenic effects are wonderfully well produced and the story is followed closely enough to make it plain to those have read it. On the other hand, should anyone see it who never read the story the picture tells it plainly enough to make it understood. / This film, the last in the series, illustrates the re-sale of Uncle Tom to Simon Legree, the escape of Cassie, and the cruel punishment and death of Uncle Tom, with the accessories which are described in the novel. What is said of this film may be accepted as applying to the entire series. Probably few novels offer such a fertile field for exploitation in motion pictures as this. The incidents, as described, are dramatic, but they are more. They arouse the emotions more forcibly than almost any other book published, and in playing upon the emotions they excite interest. The acting is sympathetic, with full appreciation of the possibilities of the piece. Perhaps few reproductions of long stories have been so well done. The difficulty generally is that the stories seem disconnected and in a way meaningless; but in this instance the continuity has been preserved, even in the process of elimination which has been unusually severe. But the novel has so many salient features that with only the most prominent shown there is no trouble in holding the interest of the audience. The series will be recognized as an achievement of importance, calculated to excite more than ordinary interest in the minds of almost any audience.

Survival status: Prints exist in the Library of Congress film archive [35mm positive (rerelease version, incomplete)]; and in private film collections [8mm reduction positives (abridged Empire Safety Film Company version)].

Current rights holder: (unknown)

Listing updated: 29 April 2025.

References: Film viewing : Website-AFI; Website-IMDb : with additional information provided by Paul Mular.

Home video: Blu-ray Disc, DVD.