Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a subservient black person, fitting willingly into the stereotyped and inferior image refined by generations of white supremacy; a middle-class black who wishes to distance themselves from the ghetto; an affected or pretentious black person.

[c.1790		C. Dibdin ‘Negro Philosophy’ in Songs I (1842) 169/2: Then let um wait till that world come, / When overseers no jerk ye, / Meet sissy Quashie, Uncle Tom, / No more to worky, worky.
1843		R.S. Surtees Handley Cross (1854) 110: You’ll be vot they call a man of ‘all vork,’ a vite nigger — a wite Uncle Tom in fact!
1853		in J. Blassingame Slave Testimony (1977) 294: The condition of this colored man [...] was of a character nearly approaching that described by Mrs. Stowe, as the condition of ‘Uncle Tom.’.
[1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor II 493/1: I was a little boy when the slaves in Jamaica got their freedom. [...] There are a great many Irish in this place [...] If you don’t go out with them and carouse with them, they don’t like it; they make use of bad language – they chaff me about my misfortune – they call me ‘Cripple;’ some says ‘Uncle Tom,’ and some says ‘Nigger’].
[1866		C.H. Smith Bill Arp 24: When Niggerdom is to feel the power of your proclamation, when Uncle Tom is to change his base and evacuate his cabin].
1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 21 July 28/1: Moreover, it is quite likely that the Westralian nigger-owner and nigger-driver would wave his enthusiastic hat in absolute sincerity. Even in the Southern States, in the days of Uncle Thomas, you could raise a deafening cheer for the Flag of Liberty any day.
1908		‘O. Henry’ ‘Jeff Peters as a Personal Magnet’ in Gentle Grafter (1915) 23: An Uncle Tom shuffles into the hotel and asks for the doctor to come and see Judge Banks.
1926		Van Vechten Nigger Heaven 229: Uncle Tom! Old Black Joe! One of those damn conciliatory Niggers who ‘knew their places.’.
1935		L. Hughes Mulatto in Three Negro Plays (1969) Act I: Don’t talk to me, old slavery-time Uncle Tom.
1943		Pittsburgh Courier (PA) 10 July 21/1: The motion picture industry [is] stripping our characters of many of those atrocious mannerisms that dubbed them ‘Tom’.
1946		Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 225: Uncle Tom believes he’s good-for-nothing, shiftless, sub-human, just like the white bossman says he is.
1950		B. Spicer Blues for the Prince (1989) 73: He is, he was, a useless, caterwauling Uncle Tom. His father, though, is a great Negro, a man of his people.
1956		Billie Holiday Lady Sings the Blues (1975) 95: He [...] practically made me feel like a Tom for not sitting down with him.
1961		(con. early 1950s) J. Peacock Valhalla 361: The spotted nigger I call Uncle Tom.
1965		C. Brown Manchild in the Promised Land (1969) 178: It [i.e. a job] was on Madison Avenue and you had to be a real Tom.
1969		C. Himes Blind Man with a Pistol (1971) 141: Them Doctor Toms [...] They’re all on whitey’s side.
1970		G. Scott-Heron Vulture (1996) 87: It had to be a brother – a twentieth century Uncle Tom.
1970		E. Tidyman Shaft 51: Shaft had been called many things, even Tom by some belligerent separatists.
1972		K. Johnson ‘Vocab. of Race’ in Kochman Rappin’ and Stylin’ Out 147: Dr. Thomas. Same connotations as ‘Uncle Tom’ or ‘Tom,’ but applied to professional, middle-class persons — especially those who are intellectuals with degrees.
1974		(con. 1940s) E. Thompson Tattoo (1977) 183: You needs somethin else, young man, you just come to see Your Uncle George, Yessir.
1977		K. Gilbert Living Black 162: There are people who have been Uncle Toms. It’s not their fault. We have a lot of Uncle Toms in Western Australia.
1978		Maledicta II:1+2 (Summer/Winter) 172: Tom Short form of Uncle Tom.
1980		E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 52: Terms that specifically disparage the black bourgeoisie, such as [...] Dr. Thomas, Mr. Thomas, handkerchief head.
1980		J.L. Gwaltney Drylongso 18: You notice that whenever they have some program about us, they always have [...] some Tom up there that nobody would choose to speak for us.
1984		Grandmaster & Mellie Mel ‘Jesse’ 🎵 Hypocrites and Uncle Toms are talking trash.
1992		D. Pinckney High Cotton (1993) 107: Spitballs and shouts of ‘Dr. Thomas,’ or, more familiarly, ‘Tom’ hit my neck in the school bus.
1993		K. Scott Monster (1994) 231: Yo’ name ain’t no George Muhammad. Yo’ name is uncle Tom.
2002		Observer 10 Mar. 13: He’s just an Uncle Tom, doing the white man’s work for him. The Voice doesn’t represent us.
2011		G. Hayward Corruption Officer [ebk] cap. 22: We are the real Uncle Toms doing the white man’s dirty work for him by oppressing out own people.
2017		D. Winslow The Force [ebook] [T]he ‘community’ [...] see him either as a potential ally who should help them out, or as a traitor. An Uncle Tom, an Oreo.

2. a tattle-tale, a person who befriends another, usu. in the workplace, only to deceive them.

1947

M.H. Boulware Jive and Sl. n.p.: Tom ... Student who tells on another.