How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
"And as for all this talk about the militia staying here to keep the darkies from rising—why it's the silliest thing I ever heard of. Why should our people rise! It's just a good excuse of cowards." (9.109)
Melly doesn't believe that troops are needed at home, because she thinks all the slaves are happy. In fact, though, there were numerous slave rebellions throughout Southern history, the most famous perhaps being Nat Turner's rebellion in 1831, in which seventy enslaved people killed about sixty white people in Southampton County, Virginia.
There were also slave revolts and attacks during the Civil War; for example, in 1864 slaves burnt fourteen houses and the courthouse of Yazoo City, Mississippi. To maintain the terrible status quo, then, there was every reason to believe that troops were needed at home. But the novel can't acknowledge this, because to do so would mean that the slaves were being kept in slavery by force, and this novel prefers to depict black people as happily oppressed.
Quote #5
Negroes were provoking sometimes and stupid and lazy, but there was loyalty in them that money couldn't buy, a feeling of oneness with their white folks which made them risk their lives to keep food on the table. (28.7)
Scarlett is praising Pork for helping the family—but she can't do it without also talking about how stupid and lazy he is. Which seems like it's not such a great compliment, really.
Quote #6
"Wilkerson and Hilton furthermore told the negroes they were as good as the whites in every way and soon white and negro marriages would be permitted, soon the estates of their former owners would be divided and every negro would be given forty acres and a mule for his own." (31.26)
Wilkerson and Hilton, both Yankees, are presented as being evil because they think black people are as good as white people, and because they think black folks and white folks should marry. In other words, it's villainous to argue for equal rights in this book.