The Sins of the Father: A Romance of the South

Thomas Dixon, best known for writing the source material to D.W. Griffith's landmark film The Birth of a Nation, was one of the best-selling authors of the twentieth century. With the novels The Leopard's Spots (1902), The Clansman (1905), and The Traitor (1907), Dixon popularized the legend of Southern redemption and the Ku Klux Klan's rise and fall. Appearing after his famed Klan trilogy, The Sins of the Father (1912) involves themes of interracial sex that cut daringly close to the history of the North Carolina author's own family. It stands firmly in the tradition of American novels-such as Lydia Maria Child's A Romance of the Republic (1867), Pauline Hopkins's Of One Blood (1902), and William Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom! (1936)-that explore the historically charged issues of miscegenation and incest.

At the center of The Sins of the Father is war-torn Confederate veteran Daniel Norton, a newspaper editor and North Carolina KKK leader with an invalid wife. To manage his household, Norton hires an octoroon nurse named Cleo, who is ultimately characterized as a racialized temptress. Major Norton is drawn to Cleo, and the novel explores the consequences of their relationship.

Encapsulating the historical breadth and thematic depth of Dixon's earlier novels but with a notable twist on the trilogy's radical sexual politics, The Sins of the Father is a startling look at the politics and history of race formation in twentieth-century America.