an old-fashioned word from the 19th century often used by women and high class society back then to describe a negro, originally a negro slave; a word most often used by southern women and
effete gentlemen who thought the more commonly accepted word nigger (back then) was a bit low-class and pedestrian; a polite word for a
nigger slave memorialized in song by Stephen C.
Foster's tunes like O Susanna, My Old Kentucky Home, and Old Folks at Home.
Scarlett: A proper
southern lady always uses the word darkie when referring to her negro slaves.
Rhett: Frankly, my dear,
I don't give a damn. There all a bunch of lazy niggers to me.