Gone with the Wind

One rainy night, Tony Fontaine knocks on Miss Pitty’s door in the middle of the night. Scarlett and Frank wake up in fright. Tony has come all the way from Jonesboro, riding his horse as fast as he could, and his news forces Scarlett to face the horrors of Reconstruction again. Tony shares that the Yankees are after him and says he’s only alive thanks to Ashley. When Scarlett asks what happened, Tony says he cut Jonas Wilkerson “to ribbons.” Frank nods approvingly. There seemed to be some understanding between him and Tony. Scarlett asks how Ashley is involved. Tony says the Yankees aren’t after Ashley because Ashley didn’t kill Jonas. While Frank saddles the horse, Tony tells Scarlett that Jonas had been stirring up free Blacks and promising them they could vote and marry white women. Tony cries that this can’t be tolerated.

Tony continues his story: one day, Eustis, the Fontaines’ old enslaved foreman, came into the Fontaine’s kitchen drunk and said something insulting to Sally Fontaine. Tony heard her scream and ran in and shot Eustis. Then Tony went to Jonesboro to hunt down Jonas. Since Tony forgot his pistol, he killed Jonas with his knife. Then Ashley told him to go. Tony plans to settle in Texas and hopes the Yankees won’t find him. He says goodbye, goes out into the rain, and mounts the horse Frank has ready for him.

The full meaning of Reconstruction hits Scarlett over the head. She knows now why Frank doesn’t like her driving around alone with all the “free issue niggers” about. The Yankees will hang anyone who avenges a white woman for being raped or killed by a Black man. All the white men in the South are eager to defend their white women. Men who had been defeated after the war are becoming reckless and angry again, and Scarlett sympathizes. The South is too beautiful to be “ruined” by Yankees and Black people.

When Frank comes in, Scarlett runs to him and asks how long the South will be like this. Frank soothes her and tells her not to worry about men’s business. He assures her that when Southerners have the vote again, everything will be okay. Scarlett doesn’t want her children raised in this state of uncertainty and violence. But she doesn’t think voting will help anything; she thinks only money will restore the South. As they go back to bed, Scarlett tells Frank she is pregnant.

The Yankees hear that Tony left Miss Pitty’s, so they repeatedly search her house. Pitty didn’t know about Tony’s visit, so she truthfully says she hasn’t seen him. Scarlett hates and fears the Yankee soldiers. There’s been talk of the North confiscating Rebel property, and she fears the loss not only of Tara and Pitty’s house, but of the sawmill and store. She’s mad at Tony for putting her in danger. And why did Ashley send Tony to them? She swears not to help anyone again, unless it’s Ashley. Finally, the Yankees give up and leave Miss Pitty’s house alone.

Scarlett now sees how uncertain life is. She shares the South’s belief that Reconstruction is making Southerners powerless against forces that want to take everything that belongs to them. As they see it, only Black people have rights now. The Yankees stationed in Georgia regulate how white Southerners run their businesses, what songs they sing, and what oaths they marry under. They take over all the newspapers so no one can publicly protest. All protesters are jailed without trial and suspected of affiliation with the Ku Klux Klan. Black people can make accusations, encouraged by the North’s promise that they’ll soon have the right to vote.

In the South’s opinion, it’s awful that the lowest class of formerly enslaved Black people are now the “lords of creation.” Now, the highest-class ex-enslaved persons scorn freedom, but the low fieldhand class embraces it and are at the top of the social order. The free Blacks act like the “creatures of low intelligence” the South thought they were. They live in squalor because the Freedmen’s Bureau, only focused on the politics, neglects them. They send them back to their white former enslavers with instructions that they be paid wages. White women who live alone are attacked by these ex-enslaved persons. The Ku Klux Klan is created out of a perceived “tragic necessity” to avenge these atrocities. Scarlett is scared of the “lawless negroes” and the Yankees. She kept thinking of what Tony Fontaine said: it can’t be tolerated!

Despite Reconstruction, Atlanta is a booming town again. However, money and rights are in the “wrong” hands. The town bustles with a lascivious, Yankee energy, but underneath, Southerners live in fear. The Yankees make Atlanta their headquarters, and Carpetbaggers and refugees come from everywhere. The red-light district and saloons attract more business, and pistol fights break out all night.

Belle Watling is the most famous “madam” in Atlanta. She owns a new house that is furnished opulently. Everyone knows Belle couldn’t have afforded the house herself and suspects that Rhett Butler bought it for her. The Yankees build fine homes beside the Southerners’ half-burned homes. They splurge on fine furniture and dine on fine food while in the old houses, Southerners starve. The conquerors are arrogant and the conquered are bitter. Dr. Meade thinks no one should have babies in these awful times.