Simon Legree

American  

[li-gree] / lɪˈgri /

noun

1. the brutal plantation owner in the novel Uncle Tom's Cabin who abuses and murders several enslaved people.

2. any harsh, merciless master.

   Our math teacher is a Simon Legree.

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Legree, Simon Cultural  

1. The cruel overseer and owner of slaves in Uncle Tom's Cabin, by Harriet Beecher Stowe. Though the book describes conditions in the slaveholding states of the South, Legree, the most vicious character in it, is from New England.

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Example Sentences

Samuel Pinchard, the plantation owner, is a literary descendant of Simon Legree, but Jeffers has drawn him in the full height of psychological complexity.

From Washington Post

Naturally, a Simon Legree figure is always handy to do their dirty work, while highborn white ladies dither prettily in the background…

From Time

Men and women read it, talked about it, cried over the death of Little Eva and of Uncle Tom, shuddered at the cruelty of Simon Legree.

From Literature

Quentin Tarantino’s “Django Unchained” takes place just before the Civil War but celebrates a once-enslaved black man exacting vengeance against an evil plantation owner who makes Simon Legree look genteel.

From New York Times

Round about Cairo, with and without the Assistance of the Dragoman or Simon Legree of the Orient XIII.  

From Project Gutenberg