Summary: Chapter XXXIX
Scarlett returns to Tara for Gerald’s funeral. Will Benteen
tells her that Suellen, desperate for more money, tried to trick
Gerald into taking the oath of loyalty to the Union. Men who swear
loyalty to the Union receive compensation for property lost during
the war. Will says that Suellen got Gerald drunk and got him to
agree to sign anything. Although drunk, Gerald realized what was
about to happen and ripped up the oath. He mounted his horse and
rode away. When he tried to jump a fence, his horse pitched him
off, killing him upon impact. Will shocks Scarlett by telling her
that he plans to marry Suellen so that he can stay at Tara forever.
Summary: Chapter XL
When she sees Tara, Scarlett’s heart surges with love.
Ashley performs the funeral service and Will asks to say a few words.
To keep any of the mourners from criticizing Suellen, Will announces
their engagement and asks that no one else speak after him. Old
Miss Fontaine tells Scarlett that the secret to success lies in
changing with the changing times, rising up after misfortune, and
using people and then discarding them. Scarlett finds the speech
confusing and dull.
Summary: Chapter XLI
After the funeral, Scarlett gives Gerald’s gold watch
to Pork as a reward for his faithful service. Upon learning that
Ashley intends to move to New York with Melanie, Scarlett appeals
to him to take a half-interest in the mill and live in Atlanta.
Ashley refuses, ashamed to live on her charity and tormented by
his love for Scarlett. When Scarlett begins to cry, Melanie rushes
into the room. She learns of Scarlett’s offer and urges Ashley to
accept it in order to repay Scarlett’s kindness and let Beau grow
up in Atlanta rather than in the hostile North. Ashley accepts the
offer at the expense of his honor.
After Suellen and Will’s wedding, Carreen enters a convent,
and Ashley, Melanie, and Beau move into a little house in Atlanta
adjacent to Aunt Pittypat’s house. Melanie’s optimism, generosity,
and adherence to old Southern values make her house the social nucleus for
proud Southern families. Ashley proves incompetent at wringing profits
from the labor of the freed slaves, so Scarlett announces her intention
to lease convicts to work in her mills.
Summary: Chapter XLII
Scarlett gives birth to an ugly baby girl and names her
Ella Lorena. Scarlett is desperate to get back to the mill, but
Frank forbids her to return. Atlanta has become dangerous, and Frank
worries for Scarlett’s safety. The Yankees, he says, are trying
to root out the Ku Klux Klan, and anger has begun to brew among
the freed slaves in areas like Shantytown. A one-legged, one-eyed
mountain man named Archie begins to work as Scarlett’s escort into
town. Rude and intimidating, Archie quickly becomes an Atlanta institution,
chaperoning women around town. When Archie hears about Scarlett’s plan
to lease convicts to work in the mills, he threatens to stop assisting
her. He tells her he was a convict for forty years after murdering his
adulterous wife, and says that convict leasing is worse than slave ownership.
Scarlett learns that the Georgia legislature has refused
to ratify a Constitutional amendment granting blacks citizenship.
Though many Southerners take pride in the legislature’s resolve,
Scarlett realizes it will make the Yankees even harder on Atlanta.
She leases ten convicts to work in her mills, hiring a Yankee Irishman
named Johnnie Gallegher as their foreman. Atlanta is appalled at
Scarlett’s actions, and Archie quits as promised, but Gallegher
gets an astonishing amount of work out of his men. To Scarlett’s
dismay, Gallegher fares far better than Ashley as a manager.
