Driven toward Madness. Nikki M. Taylor
and appearance of a member of the landed, southern elite. Southern honor was rooted in an inner conviction of one’s own self-worth and pride about one’s morality, values, and unimpeachable conscience; those feelings are projected outward and confirmed by society. In other words, honor began with self. According to the late historian Bertram Wyatt-Brown, “Honor serves as ethical mediator between the individual and the community by which he is assessed and in which he also must locate himself in relation to others.” In short, a man was honorable only if his community believed him to be and he had a reputation for being so. Gaines imagined himself honorable and projected that to his Richwood community, which, in turn, accepted him as a man of honor.23 Honor was not solely determined by character, though; it could also be earned in southern society through wealth—specifically land and slave ownership. The community automatically bestowed honor on a man with Gaines’s wealth. Hence, his wealth cemented his standing as an honorable man in his community.
In the Old South, gentility was a higher, more refined form of honor based on the graces of sociability, learning, and piety—although the weight of each of those graces varied depending on location. Sociability is likability, or a person’s social graces, disposition, and friendliness. A premium was placed on the spoken word as a component of honor, especially eloquence, charisma, engaging conversation, humor, charm, and wit. Archibald K. Gaines possessed none of the refinement, sophistication, or charisma that would qualify him as genteel. He received only a basic education. He was rather reticent, inarticulate, and generally uncomfortable speaking publicly. What social graces he lacked, he made up for in piety. An active member of Trinity Episcopal Church in Covington, his community considered him “orthodox,” and he was known to be supportive of the local clergy.24
Physical appearance also mattered among Southern gentility. Gaines was described as a slender man who was slightly above medium height, with a wrinkled face. He had a small head with bushy, gray hair, matched by a gray mustache and goatee. One reporter noticed his “small foot and hand: the latter looks rough, but more from exposure than labor.” Gaines’s clothing seemed “careless” to the reporter. In the South, physical appearance and stature were considered outward reflections of honor—primal honor. Poor health, a small head or stature, and signs of physical labor such as worn hands could negate or diminish honor. Although Gaines appeared to dress carelessly and had small feet and hands with rough skin, the reporter ultimately assessed that his “general manner and appearance [were] rather gentlemanly. . . . There is nothing coarse, disagreeable or repulsive about his appearance, but on the contrary he seems to be (and we have no doubt he is) an agreeable and intelligent gentleman.”25 “Gentlemanly” men exuded honor, practiced chivalry, and behaved courteously. But “gentlemanly” and gentility are not the same concepts. Gaines would have fallen short of the membership standards of Southern gentility because of his messy appearance, small head, weathered hands, and lack of education, refinement, sophistication, and sociability.
Gaines also seems to have struggled as a slave master in the beginning. Within one year of purchasing Maplewood and its enslaved workforce from his brother John Pollard, Archibald was ready to throw in the towel. His brother Abner, writing to John Pollard reported that Archibald was in “poor spirits” and “determined to sell all the negroes he bought of you.” One of John Pollard’s sons offered to purchase the slaves from his uncle, but his offer was declined. Archibald said he wished to reserve John’s right to reclaim them, should he desire.26 At the time, Archibald K. Gaines clearly was having some unspecified trouble, but his problems did not seem to be financial in nature. Certainly, if they had been financial, he would have accepted his nephew’s offer to buy his bondspeople, hired them out, or sold them down the river. More likely, his enslaved people were being difficult or refusing to submit to his authority. That seems to be the most logical deduction—especially given John P. Gaines’s extended absence during the Mexican War and his subsequent service in the legislature, during which time his bondspeople may have had loose or lenient management. If so, this might have caused them to resist a more authoritarian or strict management style.
Whatever his difficulties in 1851, Archibald K. Gaines never sold his slaves. In 1856, he was forty-eight years old; also living at the Maplewood farm then were his pregnant thirty-four-year-old second wife, eleven-year-old daughter, and eighty-two-year-old mother—all named Elizabeth—his ten-year-old son, John, four-year-old daughter, Margaret, and son William, who was nearly two years old.27
THE MARSHALL FAMILY
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