"The planter aristocracy, the other whites, and blacks are pictures as united in defense of the South's humane, superior culture" (17). After the slave's emancipation, the former slaves show no interest in leaving Scarlett. This simplistic view of slavery shown in "Gone With the Wind" is one of the biggest aspects in "The Myth of the Lost Cause". .
As a popular Southern belief, Northern soldiers were considered "Dirty Yankees". A scene in the movie shows a malicious Federal solider entering in Scarlett's home to steal her hard-earned belongings. Scarlett shoots him dead at point-blank range to protect herself from his assault and burglary. "The implication is that the Yankees were bushwhackers or guerilla warriors-bad people who were gratuitously and randomly upsetting the genteel and benign Southern culture" (Gallagher 31). The Lost Cause theory asserts that all Federal soldiers were aggressive perpetrators, when in fact the South had just as many culprits as the North did. "A particularly interesting fact concerns Pennsylvania as Lee's army was en route to Gettysburg. The Confederate soldiers captured black people, including children and free blacks, and sent them South into slavery" (31). .
According to Southern beliefs, Robert E. Lee is one of the South's most important and crucial heroes. His ability to command his army through the Civil War gave him the title of a Southern Hero; some even viewed him as a higher being. "Lee's supreme, God-like status was established almost immediately after the war. As early as 1868 he was described in a Southern publication as bathed in the white light that falls directly upon him from the smile of an approving and sustaining God" (Gallagher 18). During the war, it seemed as if Lee never made mistakes; it was certainly not Lee's fault why the South lost the battle of Gettysburg.
