6．Gone with the Wind and American Sentimental Novels
Without doubt, Gone with the Wind is one of the most successful movie works in
America. However, the writer of the original work, Margaret Mitchell, has not been
regarded as a superb literary writer. One reason is that she draws unreal pictures of
black people as I stated in the last class. Another reason is that the novel is too
sentimental. A sentimental novel can be very popular and it sells very well, so the
publishing company gains immense profits from the sales. Actually, Uncle Tom’s Cabin
was the very best seller in the 19th century. We looked at sentimentalism in Uncle
Tom’s Cabin in the last class. Apart from it, there were several best selling popular
sentimental novels, now ignored, in the 19th century America. Susan Warner’s Wide,
Wide World (1850) and Maria Susanna Cummins’s The Lamplighter (1854) are the two
representative works among them. Gone with the Wind has some similarities to these
novels.
First of all, what is the difference between serious literature and popular novels?
Remember American Renaissance writers. Their ideas were deep and new, so they had
great power to change the readers’ ways of thinking, or even to change their lives.
Serious literature often changes the old literary trend; and sometimes it changes the
society. On the other hand, most of sentimental novels are filled with the same plot
patterns. Upon reading them, the readers are excited, weep, and feel relieved at last,
but nothing changes. It is like watching Fuyusona. Of course, sometimes a popular
novel changes the world all the more for its popularity as exemplified by Uncle Tom’s
Cabin, but this change only arises as a result; still I have to say the style and contents of
popular works are defined by repetition of the same patterns which stabilize the
reader’s mind.
7. American Political State after the War
Ku Klux Klan intimidating blacks
#1 Violence to Blacks
The number of murders and assaults perpetrated upon Negroes is very
great; we can form only an approximative estimate of what is going on in
those parts of the South which are not closely garrisoned, and from which no
regular reports are received, by what occurs under the very eyes of our
military authorities. As to my personal experience, I will only mention that
during my two days sojourn at Atlanta, one Negro was stabbed with fatal
effect on the street, and three were poisoned, one of whom died. While I was at
Montgomery, one negro was cut across the throat evidently with intent to kill,
and another was shot, but both escaped with their lives. Several papers
attached to this report give an account of the number of capital cases that
occurred at certain places during a certain period of time. (Carl Schurz,
"Report on the Condition of the South," excerpted on the Wikipedia page)
注釈：perpetrate (悪事などを)犯す
garrison 駐屯させる
#2 Most of the Southern Sstates Were Garrisoned by the US Army
(1) First Military District: Virginia
(2) Second Military District: The Carolinas
(3) Third Military District: Georgia, Alabama and Florida
(4) Fourth Military District: Arkansas and Mississippi
(5) Fifth Military District: Texas and Louisiana
Tennessee was not made part of a military district (having already been
readmitted to the Union), and therefore federal controls did not apply.
(Wikipedia)
#3 Re-admission to the union
Tennessee - July 24, 1866
Arkansas - June 22, 1868
Florida - June 25, 1868
North Carolina - July 4, 1868
South Carolina - July 9, 1868
Louisiana - July 9, 1868
Alabama - July 13, 1868
Virginia - January 26, 1870
Mississippi - February 23, 1870
Texas - March 30, 1870
Georgia - July 15, 1870
(Wikipedia)
State Property Tax Rates during Reconstruction
Year
South Carolina
Mississippi
1869
5 mills (0.5 %)
1870
9 mills
5 mills
1871
7 mills
4 mills
1872
12 mills
8.5 mills
1873
12 mills
12.5 mills
1 mill (0.1 %) (lowest rate between 1822 and
1898)
14 mills (1.4%) "a rate which virtually
1874
10.3-8 mills
amounted to confiscation" (highest rate
between 1822 and 1898)
1875
11 mills
1876
7 mills
J. S. Reynolds, Reconstruction in South J. H. Hollander, Studies in State Taxation with
Source Carolina, 1865-1877, (Columbia, SC: Particular Reference to the Southern States,
The State Co., 1905) p. 329.
(Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1900) p. 192.
#4 Mississippi Model: Excluding Black Voters
(1) voters should reside in electoral district for more than two years; (2) voters should
have no criminal record; (3) voters should have paid all the tax for the year; (4) voters
should be literate.