Uncle Tom's Cabin (1927) - (Movie Clip) Sold Down The River
Not the origin but one of the more famous literary uses of the phrase, James Lowe, the title character, separated in Kentucky from the benevolent Shelby (Jack Mower) and his own wife (Gertrude Howard), then on the riverboat restored by Universal Pictures, shot on location on the Mississippi, in Uncle Toms Cabin, 1927.