Entry · catalog no. 4089
Uncle Tom
/ /ˈʌŋkəl tɑm/ /UNG-kul-TOM
noun · nationwide · 1900s
✓ Verified
1.
A Black person who curries favor with white people by deferring, appeasing, and turning against his own community. An accusation of sold-out servility.
“Speak up for us or they'll call you an Uncle Tom.”
Origin & Attribution
The name comes from Harriet Beecher Stowe's 1852 antislavery novel, where Tom is a martyr, not a coward. The pejorative was built later — through minstrel-stage "Tom shows" that softened him into a groveling caricature, and through 20th-century Black usage that turned the name into a charge of betrayal. Malcolm X sharpened it in the 1960s with his "house Negro" framing. The insult is the community's own, aimed at those who choose white approval over Black dignity.
1852
Stowe's novel gives the name; her Tom is a martyr
late 1800s
Minstrel 'Tom shows' twist him into a groveling caricature
1960s
Malcolm X sharpens it into a civil-rights-era charge
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
Nationwide / diaspora
nationwide · 1900s
Spoken by
Black American communities (in-group critique)
$UNCLETThe Record · cultural traction
▲ Steady174 yrs
ahead of the mainstream
70/100
peak cultural energy
Introduced to English by the culture — logged here before the mainstream caught on.
Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest
First used
1852
in the culture
Cultural energy indexed from documented usage, search interest, and citation frequency. The recorded date is the archive’s permanent point of record.
Hear it spoken
By region — how it actually sounds
@auntiereg
Atlanta, GA
@deltasoul
Memphis, TN
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Citations & Sources
■
Harriet Beecher Stowe — Uncle Tom's Cabin — novel · 1852
researched
■
+ Cite a sourceMalcolm X — "Message to the Grassroots" — speech · 1963
researched
See also