The word appears 108 times.
This book about slavery, written before the Civil War, could not have been written without the use of the word. Indeed, Ms. Stowe uses the word to show how the characters dehumanized the slaves they dealt with on a daily basis. She used the word to show the lack of respect that one race could have toward another.
The word is used by everyone - Master and Slave alike. It shows how, in some instances, the slave accepted their own dehumanization and passed this inflicted cruelty on to their own race.
One of the quintessential evil characters of all time was invented in this novel - Simon Legree - a slave trader and all around rotten human being. There are too many examples to list here, but the following are just a few:
Fixing his keen dark eyes on Legree, he simply said, pointing to the dead, 'You have got all you ever can of him. What shall I pay you for the body? I will take it away, and bury it decently.'
'I don't sell dead niggers,' said Legree, doggedly. 'You are welcome to bury him where and when you like.'
George saw, at once, the force of this defiance. There was not a white person on the place; and, in all southern courts, the testimony of colored blood is nothing. He felt, at that moment, as if he could have rent the heavens with his heart's indignant cry for justice; but in vain.
'After all, what a fuss, for a dead nigger!', said Legree.
'That he won't do,' said Cassy.
'Won't, --eh?'
'No, he won't,' said Cassy.
'I'd like to know why, Mistress,' said Legree, in the extreme of scorn.
'Because he's done right, and he knows it, and won't say he's done wrong.'
'Who a cuss cares what he knows? The nigger shall say what I please, or --'
'Or, you'll lose your bet on the cotton crop, by keeping him out of the field, just at this very press.'
But he will give up, – course, he will; don't I know what niggers is? He'll beg like a dog, this morning.'