Ghost stories proliferate in Legree’s house. Witnesses indicate that the ghost wears a white sheet. Legree hears these rumors; he begins to drink more often. The night after Tom’s death, he was visited by a specter holding up a shroud that he took to be his mother’s. It entered, whispering for him to come to it. He drinks recklessly and begins to die of alcoholism; nobody visits his sickroom, where he rants and raves.

Cassy and Emmeline make their escape. Cassy is dressed like a Creole Spanish woman, and Emmeline poses as her servant. They make their way to a tavern, where they run into George Shelby. After hearing rumors from other slaves about George’s encounter with Legree, Cassy deems that he can be trusted.

The women board the same boat as George. Seeing her face, George is “troubled with one of those fleeting and indefinite likenesses, which almost everybody can remember, and has been, at times, perplexed with” (598). Cassy becomes uneasy with his evident growing interest and decides to tell him everything. George resolves to help see them to safety.

A Frenchwoman, Madame de Thoux, and her daughter occupy the stateroom adjacent to Cassy and Emmeline. Learning that George is from Kentucky, Madame de Thoux strikes up an acquaintance with him.