Commentary: Truth blown away in sugarcoated 'Gone With the Wind'

Based on Margaret Mitchell's hugely popular novel, producer David O. Selznick's four-hour epic tale of the American South during slavery, the Civil War and Reconstruction is the all-time box-office champion.

Considering its financial success and critical acclaim, "Gone With the Wind" may be the most famous movie ever made.

Along with D.W. Griffith's technically innovative but ethically reprehensible "The Birth of a Nation" (from 1915), which portrayed the Ku Klux Klan as heroic, "GWTW" presents a picture of the pre-Civil War South in which slavery is a noble institution and slaves are content with their status.

Furthermore, it puts forth an image of Reconstruction as one in which freed blacks, the occupying Union army, Southern "scalawags" and Northern "carpetbaggers" inflict great harm on the defeated South, which is saved - along with the honor of Southern womanhood - by the bravery of KKK-like vigilantes.

To his credit, Selznick did eliminate some of the most egregious racism in Mitchell's novel, including the frequent use of the N-word, and downplayed the role of the KKK, compared with "Birth of a Nation," by showing no hooded vigilantes.

One can say that "GWTW" was a product of its times, when racial segregation was still the law of the South and a common practice in the North, and shouldn't be judged by today's political and moral standards. And it's true that most historical scholarship prior to the 1950s, like the movie, also portrayed slavery as a relatively benign institution and Reconstruction as unequivocally evil.

Or as William L. Patterson of the Chicago Defender succinctly wrote: "('Gone With the Wind' is a) weapon of terror against black America."

An exaggeration on your part.

Taney was a friend and neighbor of John Merryman, and should have recused himself from the proceedings. Even then, once Taney learned that the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus had been suspended, he should have realized that he no longer had any jurisdiction.

1,428 posted on 11/26/2004 9:12:53 PM EST by capitan_refugio

I can certainly quote part of it for you:

"In the case of John Merriman [sic], the interposition of Chief Justice Taney can only be regarded as at once officious and improper .... Judge Taney presents the ungracious spectacle of a judicial and the military authority of the United States at variance, the soldier eager to punish, and the jurist eager to exculpate a traitor. The antithesis might have been very easily avoided; and an impression that the zeal of the Justice might have been less fervent, had not the prisoner been a citizen of his own State, a neighbor, and a personal friend, would not have countenanced." (From Rehnquist, pg 35) [position advocated by CR]

1,474 posted on 11/27/2004 12:59:39 AM EST by capitan_refugio

You asked for my evidence that Merryman was a "friend and neighbor" of Taney's. You got it. In spades. So stop the cowardly whining.

1,546 posted on 11/27/2004 2:43:28 PM EST by capitan_refugio

I believe the term is "the chain of custody." Lincoln seemed not to have a problem with Cadwalader's actions. The idea of suspending the privilege of the writ was so partisan judges like Taney could not spring their treasonable friends.

1,630 posted on 11/28/2004 2:15:40 AM EST by capitan_refugio

Taney's actions and attitude are perfectly consistent with a partisan judge trying to spring a friend, rather one who is interested investigating the validity of a claim that cripples his authority.

1,710 posted on 11/29/2004 2:38:44 PM EST by capitan_refugio

Taney was a southern partisan. He should have recused himself from sitting on the case of a friend and neighbor.

1,774 posted on 11/30/2004 12:46:31 PM EST by capitan_refugio

Was Merryman a "personal friend of Taney"? You have provided nothing to refute the claim and I have provided a list of reasons to believe that such was quite likely the case.

2,173 posted on 12/03/2004 4:35:14 AM EST by capitan_refugio

It is called a "death vigil." The wound was mortal and the first doctors (Charles Leal and Charles Taft) to see it realized that was the case.

The scene pictured is incorrect. The bed Lincoln was carried to was too short for his frame and the room was lit by a single gas light. Lincoln was arranged diagonally on the bed, with his head toward the door and his feet over the edge of the opposite corner of the bed. The room was tiny, so small in fact, that Sec. Stanton had to set up a post in the adjoining room.

A total of sixteen doctors would see Lincoln that night, including the Surgeon General Joseph Barnes and the Lincoln family physician, Robert Stone. All of them realized the wound was fatal.

The sad fact behind Lincoln's death was that the more radical Republicans were able to use the assassination to further punish the south, beyond the moderate Reconstruction advocated by the late President.

Tough break, huh?

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