Emma "Emmie" Wilkerson, née Slattery is a formerly poor woman, who lived near Tara. Her family depended on Ellen O'Hara's charity.
Biography[]
Emmie grew up on a small, poor farm in a swamp bottom near Tara with her father Tom, mother and numerous siblings. Being "white trash", they depended on Ellen O'Hara's charity. Ellen gave them money and medicine when they were ill. It is possible Angus MacIntosh also supported them.
The overseer of Tara, Jonas Wilkerson, is suspected of impregnating her out of wedlock. Prior to her pregnancy, she was seen walking down the road at nightfall with the Yankee bachelor. He is suspecting of not wanting to marry Emmie as she is below his class. When the baby is born, Scarlett's mother assists in baptizing the baby because it died as well as nursing Emmie.
During the war, Emmie gets typhoid and her mother asks for Ellen's help in nursing her. Because of this, Ellen contracts typhoid and so does Suellen and Careen. Mammy blames Emmie and her family for Ellen's death, as does Scarlett O'Hara.
After the war, Emmie marries Jonas who works for the Freedmen’s Bureau. He raises taxes on Tara to try to force out the O’Haras, noting that "Emmie had a hankering to live here."
Appearance[]
The word "tow-headed" is used in the novel which indicates a person with very light blond or untidy hair. When she visits Tara with her husband Jonas, she is wearing bright clothes which is a stark contrast to everyone else who is living in poverty and wearing rags.