This jug is decorated with relief scenes depicting two incidents from ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin’ by the American author Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811–96). One (left-hand side, which contains historical and offensive terms) shows the sale of slaves with a poster on the auctioneer’s rostrum declaring ‘By Auction this Day a Prime Lot of Healthy NEGROES’. On the other side, the young mother, Eliza, clutching her small son Harry, is depicted running barefoot across the frozen Ohio River, using blocks of floating ice as stepping stones as she escapes Haley, the evil slave trader wielding a whip. The jug’s handle is modelled in the form of a praying African; there is a palm tree moulded under the lip of the jug and a leaf pattern around the base. On the bottom of the jug is impressed 'Published by RIDGEWAY & ABINGTON, HANLEY, January 1, 1853'.
‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin’ was published as a weekly serial in the American abolitionist newspaper ‘The National Era’ between June 1851 and April 1852. Reprinted in book form, it became an international best-seller. It is probable that this jug was produced to coincide with Stowe’s visit to Britain in 1853, where the book proved to be a major success. A particularly popular version, published by John Cassell of London, was illustrated by George Cruikshank (1792–1878). The novel also inspired a large number of 'Anti-Tom' works from defenders of slavery in the American South.