The Garies and Their Friends

Content Warning: This section refers to enslavement, racism, racist violence, discrimination, murder and death, and alcohol addiction.

The Garie family are protagonists of The Garies and Their Friends. The Garie family consists of Mr. Clarence Garie, a white Southerner descended from plantation owners and enslavers; his wife, Mrs. Emily Garie (née Winston), a Black woman whom Clarence purchased for $2,000 at an auction in Savannah; and their two children, Clarence and Emily. Mr. and Mrs. Garie are essentially tragic figures. They love each other dearly, but their interracial marriage is illegal in their home state of Georgia and condemned in their adopted state of Pennsylvania. Mr. Garie is a typical Southern gentleman who loves his estate. He takes pride in treating his enslaved people well, but he does not fully understand the precarity of his wife and children’s position until Mrs. Garie entreats him to move to the North so that they will not be sold back into enslavement upon the event of his death. In his final act, Mr. Garie acts bravely to defend his family and home against his cousin, Mr. George Stevens, and pays with his life. Mrs. Garie, for her part, is a typical Southern lady who dotes on her husband and children.