Pork is the former house-slave of Gerald O'Hara at Tara. He is married to Dilcey, making him Prissy's stepfather. He and Dilcey also share a child. In the movie, Pork is portrayed by Oscar Polk.
Biography[]
When Gerald O'Hara arrived in America from Ireland, Pork was his first slave. He won him in a poker game with a planter from Saint Simons Island. and brought him to Tara. They lived together in the overseer's house before building the large plantation house. Pork's former owner offered to buy him back at twice his value, but Gerald refused.
By 1861, Pork had fallen in love with and married Dilcey, a house-slave at Twelve Oaks. Gerald O'Hara purchased both Dilcey and her daughter Prissy from John Wilkes. Pork was very grateful for this.
During the Civil War, Pork remained in Gerald's service at Tara, even when Tara was taken over by Yankees. After Gerald O'Hara's death, his daughter Scarlett gave him Gerald's golden watch for his loyal years of service.
In 1868, Scarlett married Rhett Butler and they hired Pork as a butler.
Heritage[]
Pork is described as speaking "Geechee" to Gerald. Once viewed as a derogatory term, Geechee was a term used to described a non-standard local dialect but it is now somewhat embraced. It primarily refers to the Gullah people, African-Americans of the Georgia and South Carolina Low-Country and Sea Islands, and their language. The Gullah preserved much of African culture. The Gullah Geechee people are the descendants of West and Central Africans who were enslaved and bought to the lower Atlantic states of North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, and Georgia to work on the coastal rice, Sea Island cotton and indigo plantations.
Trivia[]
- Pork is fiercely loyal to Gerald O'Hara and his memory, having served him for over twenty years.