Here's a general idea of the grandiose or oblivious subtype of narcissism:
I place the signs at the top because we will need to consult them as we, like our 19th century pilgrims, know so little about the illness. Especially if we find it uncomfortable to think about. That feeling will make you want to shut down conversation about narcissism. The ignorance prevails.
You can think about modern narcissists you know and ask if it sounds reasonable they and Yancey have the same peculiarities, the same illness. The 19th century acts will look different, but can we, with study, find modern parallels? When we find a nest of narcissists in a family, we are looking for descendants of Yancey – looking for his characteristics – transmitted through his genes by way of one of his wives or rape victims. I'm aware of one family where the transmission seems genetic. Their young people carry that illness proportional to their resemblance to an earlier family member recognized as peculiar, angry, or arrogant. The family I think of seems to carry intelligence along with narcissism.
This is a summary of Yancey White, born c. 1811, as he makes his way from his childhood South Carolina home to make the acquaintance of some relatives said to live in Paulding County, Georgia. What seems to have happened is Yancey stopped riding near Cave Spring, Georgia, and there made the acquaintance of brothers Moses and William of Cedartown who were living away from their Paulding County brothers and sisters. Moses was older and wiser. William was a green recruit when he announced he was joining the Confederate Army. His new "buddy" Yancey took him to visit a negro woman as a going away present. The woman was Mary, in her twenties and almost fully white. Yancey hat sex with the woman, a house servant working for the Harbours on the Coosa River at State Line. I am less certain William White had sex with her, but he did carry a feeling of responsibility with the boy Jim was born in 1862.
Out of the army, William moved back to near State Line. In fact, William left his wife, moved into Mary's former slave house with her and Jim and an older girl of Mary's. The family lore is that William adopted the boy, in 1870 called James Adams, and gave him his name: James White, and moved Mary and James out of state, to Dalton, Georgia (there is evidence of that). The motive must have been to get the mother and child away from Yancey White, who had demonstrated his danger to women. During reconstruction, a former enslaved woman complained of bastardy to the US authorities. against Yancey. He killed the woman who complained, reported with humor by the racist southern newspapers.
I am out of time now, but the youthful troubles are there in the two
Yancey web pages that you can read on the williamwhite.family web page.
His mother, Mrs. White in Pendleton District, SC, gave him to another
family, perhaps as a teenager.