Scarlett, I don't like to interfere, but-I do wish you'd let me hire free
darkies instead of using convicts. I believe we could do better.
SCARL
Darkies! Why, their pay would break us! Convicts are dirt-cheap. If we
just give Gallagher a free hand and he can...
ASHLY
A free hand! You know what that means? He'll starve them and whip them.
Didn't you see them? Some of them are sick, underfed...
SCARL
Oh, Ashley, how you do run on! If I let you alone, you'd be giving them
chicken three times a day and tucking them to sleep with eiderdown quilts.
ASHLY
Scarlett, I will not make money out of the enforced labor and misery of
others.
SCARL
You weren't so particular about owning slaves!
ASHLY
That was different. We didn't treat them that way. Besides, I'd have freed
them all when Father died if the war hadn't already freed them.
SCARL
Oh, I'm sorry, Ashley. But have you forgotten what it's like without money?
I found out that money is the most important thing in the world and I don't
intend ever to be without it again! I'm going to make enough so the Yankees
can never take Tara away from me! I'm going to make it the only way I know
how!
ASHLY
But we're not the only Southerners who have suffered, Scarlett. Look at
all our friends. They're keeping their honor and their kindness, too.
SCARL
Yes, and they're starving. I haven't got any use for fools who won't help
themselves. Oh, I know what they're saying about me, and I don't care!
I'm going to make friends with the Yankee carpetbaggers, and I'm going
to beat them at their own game, and you're going to beat them with me!