Economic Emancipation in the Plantation South: Women in William Faulkner, Margaret Mitchell, Ernest Gaines, and Sherley Anne Williams

This thesis is intended to investigate women’s plantation economies from the varying perspectives of Margaret Mitchell, William Faulkner, Sherley Anne Williams, and Ernest Gaines. The materials used for research were primary texts: Gone With the Wind, The Unvanquished, Dessa Rose, and The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman^ along with multiple secondary sources. Faulkner and Mitchell show white plantation mistresses take advantage of their newfound independence and economic opportunities due to the absence of the patriarch during the Civil War. While these plantation mistresses prove to be economic powers, their slaves remain in traditional roles. They are depicted to be content wdth their lives and their plantation mistresses. Gaines and Williams present a contrasting view of the relationship between slaves and their white mistresses. Because these neo-slave narratives provide the slave perspective, there is more definitive understanding of slave life. In addition, these neo-slave narratives provide slaves a voice and economic empowerment in the plantation community, factors that Faulkner and Mitchell never explore in The Unvanquished and Gone With the Wind. Overall, it appears that contemporary neo-slave narratives provide a more realistic interpretation of the plantation economy. While Faulkner and Mitchell empower the plantation mistress in the business community, this only gives economic independence to white women. It creates a two-fold problem: the relationship between slave/mistress is idealized and slaves remain in stereotypical roles as “help.” Faulkner and Mitchell provide the white perspective of the plantation community, an aspect that appears to be a biased view. Because Gaines and Williams write their novels in the slave perspective. I was able to recognize the truth about slavery. In their novels, relationships between slaves/mistresses are not idealized, and slaves have a voice. Gaines and Williams allow their slaves to become economic powers, a feature missing in Gone With the Wind and The Unvanquished. Faulkner and Mitchell present slaves who help their plantation mistresses with economic endeavors but lack the benefits and credit for their work. Overall, Gaines and Williams fill in the missing pieces and perspectives that Mitchell and Faulkner disregard in Gone With the Wind and The Unvanquished. Though Gone With the Wind and The Unvanquished are camouflaged with humor and drama that tugs at heartstrings, the facts still remain: Faulkner and Mitchell portray a one-sided account of plantation economies