"Down on his knees" -- that's the phrase Huck uses to locate Jim when they meet in Chapter 8. One of the most conspicuous patterns in the way white America represented slaves throughout the 19th century is how often they are shown kneeling to a white person. This illustration is one of the several hundred that Hammatt Billings drew for a "deluxe" edition of Uncle Tom's Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe's 1852 anti-slavery protest and runaway best-seller. In this scene Tom, "turning suddenly round and falling on his knees," is pleading with Augustine St. Clare, his "master" in New Orleans, to give up alcohol, because of what the "good Book says."
The Barrett Collection, UVA A 1852 .S76 U4