Gone with the Wind: Chapter 42 Summary & Analysis

Scarlett’s baby—Ella Lorena—is an ugly girl who looks like Frank. She’s born around the time the KKK lynches a Black man arrested for rape in his jail cell. The townspeople are pleased, but the Yankee soldiers are furious. They threaten to arrest every white man in town if the KKK strikes again. Scarlett is thankful that Ashley and Frank aren’t in the KKK.

Three weeks after giving birth, Scarlett is ready to go back to work. But Frank puts his foot down. He forbids her to leave the house while things are so dangerous and locks the horse and buggy in the stable. Mammy and Frank also find the money Scarlett hid in the house and deposit it in the bank. Scarlett is furious. She runs to Melanie’s and rages about this injustice. Melanie comforts Scarlett and says she’ll think of a solution.

That afternoon, a strange man walks over from Melanie’s and finds Scarlett in Pitty’s backyard. He is one of the homeless “riffraff” that Melanie charitably houses and feeds in her basement. He’s over 60 with a wooden leg and a long, grey beard. When he speaks, Scarlett knows he is from the mountains by the way he rolls his r’s. He carries a heavy pistol. The man introduces himself as Archie; Melanie sent him to drive Scarlett around and protect her from Blacks and Yankees. Scarlett doesn’t like this tobacco-chewing “desperado,” but she wants to get back to the mills and accepts his offer. Reluctantly, Frank agrees. Archie becomes Scarlett’s bodyguard while she does business. He inspires fear in everyone, so Scarlett is safe.

Most of the time, Archie is silent, although once he tells Scarlett he hates “niggers” as much as he hates talkative women. These kinds of comments make Scarlett hate him, but he serves her purpose so well that she doesn’t want to fire him. Since the KKK lynching, ladies in Atlanta have been too nervous to go out on their own. Seeing Scarlett driving safely with Archie, all the Atlanta ladies hire him, too. He effectively protects them against Reconstruction. After Archie starts working for her, Scarlett notices that Frank is gone most nights. He says he’s busy with the books at the store and with helping Democrats plan to win elections. Ashley also attends these meetings, so everyone at Pitty’s usually spent nights at Melanie’s.

One morning, Archie drives Scarlett to Hugh’s mill and she finds that the free Black workers have deserted it. She’s just gotten a big lumber order that needs to be processed. Scarlett tells Archie to take her to Ashley’s mill, saying that she’s going to hire Johnnie Gallegher and lease convicts. Archie refuses to work for Scarlett if she leases convicts. He explains that he was a convict for 40 years. He murdered his wife because he’d found her sleeping with his brother and was sentenced to life, but he was released on the condition that he fight in the war. The convicts were great soldiers. He lost his leg and his eye, but now he’s free.

Scarlett doesn’t understand why Archie would fight for a state that took away 40 years of his life. She remembers how Rhett had joined at the last minute and decides that all Southern men are “sentimental fools.” Looking at Archie and his pistols, Scarlett is scared. Scarlett says that if Melanie knew Archie was a murderer, she’d be shocked. Archie says Melanie does know, but she believes Archie redeemed himself in the war. Scarlett doesn’t care if Archie stops working for her when she leases the convicts; she doesn’t want to be protected by a murderer.

As Archie and Scarlett drive home, they see a crowd outside of the Girl of the Period Saloon. Scarlett tells Archie to pull up. She hopes there hadn’t been another KKK incident.  She asks what’s wrong, and Grandpa Merriwether explains that the Democratic legislature refused to ratify the amendment that would allow Black people to vote. Ashley says the Yankees will force it on them, and they might have a “dark legislature,” and a “darky governor.”

Ashley wonders whether it would be best to fight or swallow their pride and submit to the Yankees. Grandpa Merriwether accuses him of disloyalty. Tension rises, and Archie’s hand goes to his gun. Angry, Ashley says he didn’t believe in the war, but he still fought it. Uncle Henry tells Archie to drive Scarlett home before things get violent. Scarlett doesn’t admire the legislature for standing up to the Yankees. She might lose her mills over this! She wishes everyone would sit down without a fight.

The next day, Scarlett leases ten convicts to work at her mills and Archie refuses to drive her. Everyone says it’s wrong of Scarlett to take advantage of the miseries of others. Scarlett points out that no one objected to slavery. People insist that was different, and that Black people were better off when they were enslaved. Scarlett replaces Hugh with Johnnie Gallegher, since he’s the only person she knows who approves of the convicts. He asks Scarlett not to come to the mill because it’s inappropriate for a lady to be around a convict gang. Meanwhile, Ashley is doing worse than ever managing the other mill. He’s ashamed to manage convicts. Scarlett worries about him because he looks like he’s in unendurable pain. She wants to comfort him, but he keeps his distance from her.