The “obedient servant” or “happy slave” myth is the second lie of the Lost Cause. African Americans were “faithful slaves,” loyal to their masters, loyal to the Confederate cause. In Gone With the Wind, Scarlett scoffs at the idea of keeping Confederate soldiers at home “to keep the darkies from rising—why, it’s the silliest thing I ever heard of. Why should our people rise?” Mitchell writes that the enslaved believe slavery was the best thing for them. All of the enslaved house servants stay with Scarlett and her family after the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, freed the
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