Gone with the Wind is the romantic drama depicting the love triangle among Scarlett, Rhett and Ashley. The movie takes place in Atlanta, specifically, Tara, the O’Hara plantation in northern Georgia, during the 1860-1870s. The movie starts out at the brink of the Civil War, knowing that war can break out at any moment. Upon watching this movie for a second time, I took a closer look at the political and historical aspects of the movie. I noticed quite a few things about the culture of the Old South: the way women and slaves were treated and the way they dressed the importance of land and plantations to be wealthy in this era, and just how prominently the impact was of the war between the Yankees and Confederates.
In the Old South was a time when slavery and cotton were the most profitable industries, so plantation owners were often rich men. The O’Hara family lived in Twelve Oakes, which in the movie was a wealthy plantation. They had three slaves, Mammy, Pork, and Prissy. The slaves in this household were treated humanely and kindly, rather than the normal management of slaves in the 1800s. Slaves, who normally worked long hours on a plantation or in a household, were usually put down and shown prejudiceness. In fact, at one point in the novel, Mammy referred to the outside slaves as field hands and looked disapprovingly at the ex-slaves while traveling to Atlanta with Scarlett. However, they were still slaves and considered below the white race, and the O’Hara’s talked curt to the slaves at times. At one point in the film, Scarlett slapped Prissy when she was angry that she did not know how to deliver a baby, after she told her that she could. The O’Hara’s slaves wore old uniforms, while the field workers wore rugged rags as clothing.
Women of the time were expected to be pretty all the time and stay at home and knit or crochet. They wore beautiful dresses, elaborate gowns with puffy skirts and petty coat underneath them. They wore