This is a reader’s theater performance of a scene from George Aiken’s 19th-century dramatization of the novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin. In this scene, the escaped slave Eliza reunites with her husband George and their friend Phineas. She recounts how she crossed the Ohio River with their child while escaping from slave hunters. Phineas warns them that the hunters are still in pursuit. Their exaggerated language and performance are characteristic of melodramas, which were popular at the time.