Margaret was home for good. She was no longer a child, for that childhood had died with Maybelle. She was a woman now, and in charge of the Mitchell household. She discovered that they were not as rich as she had once thought, and her first step was to fire most of the staff. She kept Bessie, the cook; Cammie, (who Prissy was modeled after) the housemaid; Charlie, the yard man; and the laundress, Carrie Holbrook, who worked two days a week. Margaret got as much work out of what was left of the staff as Maybelle had with a larger one. Margaret (Her family had refused to call her Peggy, but the servants were told to refer to her as 'Miss Peggy') soon found out that Maybelle had been the driving force behind Eugene.
Margaret had developed order in the household, and as soon as she had, Grandmother Stephens and her younger sister, Aline, attacked her with full trunks and boxes of fashionable feathered hats. Margaret did not have any fashionable clothes, and did not want her Grandmother to replace those she had. But tie and middies and serge skirts began disappearing from her wardrobe every day. She protested that it was a waste, but the transformation her new look gave her was worth it. Her hair was cut, her skirts were raised, and no middy blouse or long tie was left in her wardrobe. She only wore the plainest of the clothes that Grandmother Stephens had given her.
Margaret was approved for membership in the elite Debutante Club. but a month after her acceptance, she drove out to Stone Mountain and rented a large black horse that reminded her of Bucephalus.
(I am going to quote this part from the book)
'She rode the animal off the bridal path to a steep, narrow hill covered with low branches. At the top of the slope was a stone wall that separated the horse farm from the road. Instead of turning back at this point, Peggy decided to jump the wall, but her approach was short and the horse did not clear the top. Peggy was thrown and the horse came down on top of her. She lay there in pain and shock for nearly an hour before other riders happened along the same isolated path.
'The leg that had undergone surgery years before was once again severely injured. This time, Peggy was to take seriously the doctor's warning that she must never do "a damn fool thing like that again," for her recovery was slow and painful. Grandmother Stephens came in every day to help, but this only created more tension in the house. It was the young black girl, Cammie, upon whom Peggy now came to rely for errands, and the girl seemed to enjoy the new responsibility and freedom this gave her. Cammie could be exasperating, but she could be amusing, too, and she was wily and clever, two traits Peggy admired.
'It was summer before she was on her feet again. To strengthen the muscles of her leg, she took a dance class offered by one of her former instructors. Even so, to her disgust, the doctor ordered her to wear heavy, low-heeled shoes.'
(This is the end of my direct quote from the book)
A few years after Maybelle's death, women were granted the right to vote. Margaret was not sure how to take this freedom. She did not know how to be a 'new woman.' She would smoke, drink, and flirt outrageously. Soon after her recovery, she met a man named Red Upshaw. He was broad-shouldered, six feet and two inches, had brick red hair, green eyes, and a cleft chin. Margaret was attracted to him from the start. He called Margaret "Short-Leg Pete" or just "Short Legs." She appeared furious at him, but there was undeniably chemistry between the two. Upshaw had quit college, even though his grades were impressive.
Margaret made her debut that year. The season began in October, and she began quite well. Although she was made aware of the consequences, she did not wear the heavy shoes the doctor prescribed. But, as the season progressed, she fell out of favor with one girl after another because of her outspoken criticisms of the way the events were run by older society women. There were many dances, and the dance that was 'in' at the time was 'cheek-to-cheek.' Margaret had decided to dance the Apache dance in costume with Al Weil, a student at Georgia Tech. She dressed in black stockings, a black satin slit-front skirt and sported red lipstick. They had rehearsed the dance for a week, and, in varying passion and pain due to her leg, Margaret and Al danced. The older women were shocked. Even the gossip columnist was embarrassed by the dance, and said that Margaret had offered "herself and all she was on the altar to charity." The fact that she was Annie Fitzgerald Stephen's grandchild had gotten her into the Debutante Club, and this dance had gotten her out of it. A member had to be accepted by the Junior League, but the dance had put her into their black books. One day, she vowed, she would get back at the ladies of the Junior League.
November 8, 1921 brought Margaret's twenty-first birthday. She read a lot of great books, which made her own efforts look bad. So any dreams of becoming a published author were submerged. The rejection from Junior League had damaged her confidence, but she had not shed her daring. She was once invited to a bridal shower. All the lingerie in virginal white were laid out in piles, and Margaret added her worn present -- a violent purple nightgown!
The Ku Klux Klan had sprung up in Atlanta again. Within a few months, it had taken charge of the city, its followers being elected or appointed into major city jobs. The new clan included two of the members of the original Klan of the Reconstruction days. They were not only anti-black, but also anti-Jewish, and anti-alien and held demonstrations not only in Atlanta, but throughout the South and then upward to the Midwest and across the nation. Atlanta was national headquarters and was home to six million Klansmen. Blacks were terrified as their churches, farms, and businesses literally went up in flames. They had been brought up on Klan stories which brought terror to their hearts. Cammie, Margaret's official errand runner, refused to go anywhere near Klan headquarters or venture out of the house after seven o'clock at night.
Margaret became friends with Red Upshaw in 1922. They joined the Peachtree Yacht Club, which had nothing at all to do with boats. It was a drinking club. None of the members criticized her drinking and smoking, and admired her ability to hold liqueur. (Sounds like the Carperbagger friends that Scarlett had, doesn't it?) To amuse them, she would write plays. Her Yacht Club friends soon began coming to her home, to perform the plays.
Eugene was becoming cranky in his old age. The family suffered financial setbacks and Margaret's behavior was a constant embarrassment to them. Many times, Margaret would wake Stephens up from a sound sleep to get one of her friends out of jail. Her friendship with Red Upshaw was not approved, nor was her membership in the Yacht Club. Margaret ignored this and continued to invite her friends over. One day, Red came to her home with another man, about five years his senior, in tow.
Eugene and Stephens both liked John Marsh, despite the fact that he was a roommate with Red Upshaw. Margaret like him, but not in the same manner as she liked Red. Soon, it was evident that both men were in love with Margaret.
John Marsh was soft spoken, not as tall as Red, and not extremely attractive. He was
stoop-shouldered, wore glasses over his grey brown eyes, and had sandy hair which was receding
and flecked with grey. He took the news of Margaret's decision to marry Red well. But society
was shocked and did not approve. Marsh, although crushed, agreed to be Red's best man. Eugene
tried to talk Margaret out of it up to the last minute, and Grandmother Stephens told her she had
chosen the wrong man. But, on Saturday, September 2, 1922, Margaret Mitchell became
Margaret Upshaw and married to the wrong man.
Upshaw was publically drunk and physically abusive toward Margaret. Once, he physically assaulted her before guests. Margaret begged John Marsh to return to Atlanta (he was working in Washington) and talk to Red about his drinking problems. His sister later commented that: "I think he went back to Atlanta mostly because of his love for her. It was a steady love as far as he was concerned. Maybe for her, too. She realized that he would be what Red wasn't, you see. Red was a wild creature."
John talked to Red, and the following morning Red came to Margaret and told her that he was going to Asheville, North Carolina, and that she could get a divorce if she wanted because he was never coming back. He left the house on Peachtree Street without a backward glance, but he was to return.
As soon as Red was gone, Margaret turned to John Marsh. He admired Margaret for the writing ability he believed she possessed and knew he did not. It didn't take much convincing to make John stay in Atlanta, but he had to quit his job to do so.
Eugene Mitchell's financial problems were not solved. There was no income now from Red, whose marriage with her was over except for the legal business to tend to. She had to become her father's housekeeper or find a job. She chose to get a job, and landed one, not without trouble, in the Atlanta Journal. Her writing was very good, and her articles came to life.
Margaret was now seeing John Marsh on a steady basis, but it was more of a close friendship than a romance.
On July 10, 1923, Margaret stepped off the trolley and started home. There was a car on the curb, one she recognized to be Red Upshaw's. He got out of his car and stood between her and her home. She asked him to come in.
Only Bessie was home, for Eugene and Stephens were still at work. Margaret and Red spoke for a while in the living room about what they had been doing for the past six months, and Margaret did not bring up the fact that she was seeing John Marsh.
(This is another direct quote from the book. Anne Edwards can write so much better than I about what happened next.)
'In a sworn deposition taken less than a month later, as evidence for her divorce, Peggy said that after about ten minutes she and Upshaw went from the living room upstairs to the bedroom they had shared. She did not mention that they had been separated for half a year, nor did she state whether or not she went upstairs with him on her own accord. Once in the privacy of their bedroom, she claimed, "Mr. Upshaw demanded his connubial rights after striking me with his fist upon my left arm and about the elbow." The court representative then asked if she had given her husband cause for such violence. "I've been very kind and affectionate to my husband ever since our marriage and he has not had the least cause to complain of me," she answered. She refused his advances, she said, out of fear that he would treat her "in a cruel and inhumane manner." The counsel added that Upshaw had "jerked her against a bed, causing her to be bruised all over her body," as she successfully tried to fight him off.
"Is that the truth, Mrs. Upshaw?" the judge asked.
"Yes, sir," Peggy replied, and then went on to explain that her shouts and screams had finally brought Bessie, who appeared in the doorway after Red was leaving the bedroom, with Peggy crying hysterically as she ran after him, yelling at him to get out of the house. To Peggy's horror, he turned then and stuck her a vicious blow in the left eye.
'Peggy was rushed to the hospital, and it was two weeks before she had sufficiently recovered from the effects of this beating to return home. Her hospitalization was kept secret even from close relatives, for the humiliation was almost more than she could bear. Her bruises and abrasions were still much in evidence when she was discharged, and at home the same veil of secrecy prevailed. Peggy had asked her brother to tell Medora (her boss) that she had had to leave town to tend to a sick relative and would be away from work for six weeks if that was acceptable. Medora said it was, but did not believe the story, suspecting an explanation nearer to the truth.'
In 1924, Margaret was the leading feature writer in the Atlanta Journal. She was a respected newspaper woman, a well-known personality, a star reporter, and her name and face was familiar to all the newspaper readers. On June 17 of the same year, Margaret's divorce was filed. She wanted her maiden name restored, but they would not allow that. The family was shocked, for divorce was no little matter. Finally, after another court hearing, her maiden name was restored. She was Margaret Mitchell once more.
**Margaret Mitchell (1925-1934)**
Bibliography
Edwards, Anne. Road to Tara - The Life of Margaret Mitchell. New Haven and New York: Ticknor and Fields, 1983.