Uncle_Tom Uncle Tom is a pejorative term for a black person who is perceived by others as behaving in a subservient manner to white authority figures, or as seeking ingratiation with them by way of unnecessary accommodation. The term comes from the title character of American writer Harriet Beecher Stowe's 1851 novel Uncle Tom's Cabin. Critical and popular views of both the character and the novel have shifted over time, leading to the shift in the term's use.