Editing Gone with the Wind (novel) (section)

===Slavery===

[[Slavery in the United States|Slavery]] in ''Gone with the Wind'' is a backdrop to a story that is essentially about other things.<ref>Junius P. Rodriguez (2007), ''Slavery in the United States: a social, political and historical encyclopedia''. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, Vol. 2: p. 372. {{ISBN|978-1-85109-549-0}}</ref> Southern plantation fiction (also known as [[Anti-Tom literature]], in reference to reactions to [[Harriet Beecher Stowe]]'s [[Abolitionism in the United States|anti-slavery]] novel, ''[[Uncle Tom's Cabin]]'' of 1852) from the mid-19th century, culminating in ''Gone with the Wind'', is written from the perspective and values of an enslaver and tends to present slaves as docile and happy.<ref>Tim A. Ryan (2008), ''Calls and Responses: the American Novel of Slavery since Gone With the Wind'', Louisiana State University Press, p. 69. {{ISBN|978-0-8071-3322-4}}.</ref>

====Caste system====

The characters in the novel are organized into two basic groups along class lines: the white planter class, such as Scarlett and Ashley, and the black house servant class. The enslaved people depicted in ''Gone with the Wind'' are primarily loyal house servants, such as Mammy, Pork, Prissy, and Uncle Peter.<ref>Ryan (2008), ''Calls and Responses'', pp. 22–23.</ref> House servants are the highest "[[caste]]" of enslaved people in Mitchell's caste system.<ref name=autogenerate44/> They choose to stay with their masters after the [[Emancipation Proclamation]] of 1863 and subsequent [[Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Thirteenth Amendment]] of 1865 sets them free. Scarlett thinks of the servants who stayed at Tara, "There were qualities of loyalty and tirelessness and love in them that no strain could break, no money could buy."<ref name=autogenerated47>Part 4, chapter 38</ref>

The [[Field slaves in the United States|enslaved field workers]] make up the lower class in Mitchell's caste system.<ref name=autogenerate44/><ref>Ryan (2008), ''Calls and Responses'', p. 23.</ref> The enslaved field workers from the [[Tara (plantation)|Tara plantation]] and the foreman, Big Sam, are taken away by Confederate soldiers to dig ditches<ref name=autogenerated156 /> and never return to the plantation. Mitchell wrote that other enslaved field workers were "loyal" and "refused to avail themselves of the new freedom",<ref name=autogenerate44/> but the novel has no enslaved field workers who stay on the plantation to work after emancipation.

American [[William Wells Brown]] escaped from slavery and published his memoir, or [[slave narrative]], in 1847. He wrote of the disparity in conditions between the house servant and the field hand:

<blockquote>During the time that Mr. Cook was overseer, I was a house servant{{snd}}a situation preferable to a field hand, as I was better fed, better clothed, and not obliged to rise at the ringing bell, but about a half-hour after. I have often laid and heard the crack of the whip, and the screams of the slave.<ref>William Wells Brown (1847), ''Narrative of William W. Brown, Fugitive Slave'', Boston: Published at the Anti-Slavery Office, No. 25 Cornhill, p. 15. {{OCLC|12705739}}</ref></blockquote>

====Faithful and devoted slave====
{{quote box
 |quote = Way back in the dark days of the Early Sixties, regrettable tho it was{{snd}}men fought, bled, and died for the freedom of the negro{{snd}}her freedom!{{snd}}and she stood by and did her ''duty'' to the last ditch{{snd}}

It was and is her life to ''serve'', and she has done it well.

While shot and shell thundered to release the shackles of slavery from her body and her soul{{snd}}she loved, fought for, and ''protected''{{snd}}Us who held her in bondage, her "Marster" and her "Missus!"
|source =—Excerpt from ''My Old Black Mammy'' by James W. Elliott, 1914.<ref>James W. Elliott (1914), ''My Old Black Mammy'', New York City: Published weekly by James W. Elliott, Inc. {{OCLC|823454}}</ref>
|width = 30%
|align = right
}}

Although the novel is more than 1,000 pages long, the character of Mammy never considers what her life might be like away from Tara.<ref>Kimberly Wallace-Sanders (2008), ''Mammy: a century of race and Southern memory'', University of Michigan Press, p. 130. {{ISBN|978-0-472-11614-0}}</ref> She recognizes her freedom to come and go as she pleases, saying, "Ah is free, Miss Scarlett. You kain sen' me nowhar Ah doan wanter go", but Mammy remains duty-bound to "Miss Ellen's chile".<ref name=autogenerated12 /> (No other name for Mammy is given in the novel.)

Eighteen years before the publication of ''Gone with the Wind'', an article titled "The Old Black Mammy", written in the ''[[Confederate Veteran]]'' in 1918, discussed the romanticized view of the [[Mammy archetype in the United States|mammy character]] persisting in [[Southern United States literature|Southern literature]]:

<blockquote>for her faithfulness and devotion, she has been immortalized in the literature of the South; so the memory of her will never pass, but live on in the tales that are told of those "dear dead days beyond recall".<ref>[http://www.oldmagazinearticles.com/pdf/Black_Mammy.pdf "The Old Black Mammy"], (January 1918) ''Confederate Veteran''. Retrieved April 24, 2011.</ref><ref>[http://www.james-joyce-music.com/song06_lyrics.html "Love's Old, Sweet Song"], J.L. Molloy and G. Clifton Bingham, 1884. Retrieved April 27, 2011.</ref></blockquote>

[[Micki McElya]], in her book ''Clinging to Mammy'', suggests the myth of the faithful enslaved person, in the figure of Mammy, lingered because white Americans wished to live in a world in which African Americans were not angry over the injustice of slavery.<ref>Micki McElya (2007), ''Clinging to Mammy: the faithful slave in twentieth-century America'', Harvard University Press, p. 3. {{ISBN|978-0-674-02433-5}}</ref>

The best-selling anti-slavery novel, ''Uncle Tom's Cabin'' by Harriet Beecher Stowe, published in 1852, is mentioned briefly in ''Gone with the Wind'' as being accepted by the Yankees as "revelation second only to the Bible".<ref name=autogenerated47/> The enduring interest of both ''Uncle Tom's Cabin'' and ''Gone with the Wind'' has resulted in lingering stereotypes of 19th-century enslaved Black people.<ref>Flora, J.M., et al., ''The Companion to Southern Literature: themes, genres, places, people, movements and motifs'', pp. 140–144.</ref> ''Gone with the Wind'' has become a reference point for subsequent writers about the South, both black and white alike.<ref>Carolyn Perry and Mary Louise Weaks (2002), ''The History of Southern Women's Literature'', Louisiana State University Press, p. 261. {{ISBN|0-8071-2753-1}}</ref>