[SaxxonWoods]

“It is like the reverse of somebody who dies and there are no relatives, what happens to any debts?”

Oh, not to worry, those debts have been rehypothecated so many times there will be a flock of Simon Legrees chasing the debtors.

The lawyers will be the last ones to get rich before the denouement.

[EBH]

Simon Legree is a cruel slave owner—a Northerner by birth—whose name has become synonymous with greed. He is arguably the novel's main antagonist. His goal is to demoralize Tom and break him of his religious faith; he eventually orders Tom whipped to death out of frustration for his slave's unbreakable belief in God. The novel reveals that, as a young man, he had abandoned his sickly mother for a life at sea and ignored her letter to see her one last time at her deathbed. He sexually exploits Cassy, who despises him, and later sets his designs on Emmeline.

It is unclear if Legree is based on an actual individuals. Reports surfaced after the 1870s that Stowe had in mind a wealthy cotton and sugar plantation owner named Meredith Calhoun, who settled on the Red River north of Alexandria, Louisiana. Generally, however, the personal characteristics of Calhoun ("highly educated and refined") do not match the uncouthness and brutality of Legree. Calhoun even edited his own newspaper, published in Colfax, originally "Calhoun's Landing", renamed the National Democrat after Calhoun's death. However, Calhoun's overseers may have been in line with the hated Legree's methods and motivations.[27]

Interesting write-up of Legree in Wiki. Just thought I'd share it. Uncle Tom's Cabin

Modeled after democrat slave owners. Beating God out of a man, exploiting women and girls, greed. Have the democrats really come into modern life? Are they really all that civilized from the time of Uncle Tom's Cabin.