[Gutenberg 62033] • Blood Will Tell: The Strange Story of a Son of Ham

"A screed about racial atavism dedicated 'to all Americans who deem purity of race an all-important element in the progress of our beloved country.' The novel's 'son of Ham' is Walter Burton, a Harvard man who seems the picture of a gentleman but whose veins are tainted with a drop of Negro blood, courtesy of his Haitian great-grandmother, Mother Sybella, a voodoo (spelled Voo Doo here) priestess. The decoration on the front cover summarizes one of the novel's climactic scenes, in which Burton, in immaculate tuxedo, dances around a tree stump on which a giant snake, containing the soul of the divinity Tu Konk, presides as the object of the ceremony's worship. The ceremony consists of collecting the blood of a human sacrifice, mixing it with rum, and feeding it first to the snake, then themselves, triggering an orgy of violence. The novel itself is a case of miscegenation, adding a dash of sensationalism and a few drops of crackpot sociology to what is mainly a genteel society romance.