Race Quotes in Gone With the Wind

How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #1

It was built by slave labor […] He had done it all, little, hard-headed, blustering Gerald. (3.34-35)

Tara was built by slaves… and yet, the novel says that Gerald created his plantation himself. He is credited with the work and the hard-headedness, even though everything he did was based on forcing others to work for him, without pay, under threat of death.

Quote #2

He was dark of face, swarthy as a pirate, and his eyes were as bold and black as any pirate's appraising a galleon to be scuttled or a maiden to be ravished. (6.16)

Rhett is described throughout the novel as dark. He's also presented as animalistic, sexual, and disreputable—all racist stereotypes used to slur black people. The novel uses racist tropes to make Rhett, a white man, exciting and exotic, even as it pushes the stories of black people off to the side. More on this over in the "Themes" section, so be sure to check it out.

Quote #3

It was never fun to be around Mrs. Merriwether and Mrs. Elsing and Mrs. Whiting and have them boss you like you were one of the darkies.

Scarlett is complaining here about being forced to do work as if she is a black person. The novel recognizes here that being forced to do work is bad, yet it insists in other places that black people were happy during slavery. Racism prevents the book from even being aware of what it's saying.