So I just finished Stowe’s magnum opus (I ashamedly had never read it before now and just knew it as one of the inciting sparks of the civil war). Before I finished the book I had always known Uncle Tom as an insult used to express the belief that a black person is guilty of selling themselves and their community out to the white power structure.
When I finished the book though I was/am very confused since Uncle Tom seems to be an incredibly morale and righteous man who endured but never breaks to the white power structure. Even his last moments are pursuing justice and freedom.
Where did this transition from Uncle Tom to the insult Uncle Tom come from ?
You might be interested to read this answer by u/sunagainstgold on this topic from about a year ago.
One element I’d like to add to the above explanation; the novel was not the only contemporary depiction of the character in popular culture. Minstrel shows began to perform scenes from the novel as it was being serialized. Being minstrel (blackface) shows their depiction of the characters was... significantly less sensitive than the depictions in the novels. “Tom shows” as they came to be called became a popular sub genre of minstrel shows well into the 20th century. It’s likely that the average person in, say, 1900 would be much more familiar with the minstrel show version of the character than the one from the novel.