Scene summary from the
1903 Edison Catalogue: The scene shows an old woodshed. Uncle Tom is lying on the floor, and Cassy is seen
to steal in, raise Uncle Tom's head, give him a drink of water, and
steal away again. George Shelby enters. Going over to Uncle Tom, he
raises his head from the floor and asks him if he did not remember
him, also saying that he had come to take Tom back home. Tom tells
him that it is too late; he is dying, and pointing to the sky, says
that he can see his Heavenly home; a vision of Eva in Heaven appears
on the wall of the shed, and as it disappears, Tom drops back dead.
Shelby kneels by his side, and in rapid succession of visions of John
Brown being led to execution, a battle scene from the Civil War, and a
cross with a vision of emancipation, showing Abraham Lincoln with the negro
slave kneeling at his feet with broken manacles, appear.
Special Effects, 1903 Style: The slide images of the historical
aftermath to Tom's story are projected into the scene by a magic lantern, a
popular entertainment medium that dates back to the 17th century, and as the
earliest use of
projected light to display pictures, a technological predecessor to movies.