''The Flaming Sword'' was a 1939 novel by Thomas Dixon, Jr. It was his twenty-eighth and last novel.Project Muse
/ref> It has been described as "a racist jeremiad centered on the specter of black sexuality."Alusine Jalloh, Toyin Falola, ''The United States and West Africa: Interactions and Relations'', Rochester, New York: University of Rochester Press, 2008 p. 8

/ref>

Background

The novel is the last installment of a trilogy which included ''

The Clansman ''The Clansman: A Historical Romance of the Ku Klux Klan'' is a novel published in 1905, the second work in the Ku Klux Klan trilogy by Thomas Dixon Jr. (the others are ''The Leopard's Spots'' and '' The Traitor''). Chronicling the American Civi ...

'' and ''

The Birth of a Nation ''The Birth of a Nation'', originally called ''The Clansman'', is a 1915 American silent epic drama film directed by D. W. Griffith and starring Lillian Gish. The screenplay is adapted from Thomas Dixon Jr.'s 1905 novel and play ''The Cla ...

''.Anthony Slide, ''American Racist: The Life and Films of Thomas Dixon'', Lexington, Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky, 2004, pp. 186-18

/ref> It is partly based on '' The Red Dawn'', a play written by Dixon in 1919. Dixon worked sixteen hours a day on this novel.Jason Morgan Ward, ''Defending White Democracy: The Making of a Segregationist Movement and the Remaking of Racial Politics, 1936-1965'', Chapel Hill, North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press, 2011, pp. 31-3

/ref> The book came with thirty pages of illustrations done by

Edward Shenton Edward Shenton (1895-1977) was an American illustrator, author, editor, poet, and teacher. Biography Edward Shenton was an illustrator, writer, editor, poet, and teacher. He was born in Pottstown, Pa. November 29, 1895 and grew up in West Phila ...

. It was published by Monarch Publishing, owned by

Edward Young Clarke Edward Young Clarke was the Imperial Wizard ''pro tempore'' of the Ku Klux Klan from 1915 to 1922. Prior to his Klan activities, Clarke headed the Atlanta-based Southern Publicity Association. He later served as the president of Monarch Publishing ...

, a

Ku Klux Klan The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to the KKK or the Klan, is an American white supremacist, right-wing terrorist, and hate group whose primary targets are African Americans, Jews, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and ...

member. The title is taken from a quotation by African-American leader

W.E.B. Du Bois William Edward Burghardt Du Bois ( ; February 23, 1868 – August 27, 1963) was an American-Ghanaian sociologist, socialist, historian, and Pan-Africanist civil rights activist. Born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, Du Bois grew up in ...

: "Across this path stands the South with flaming sword."Ibrahim Sundiata, ''Brothers and Strangers: Black Zion, Black Slavery, 1914–1940'', Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press, 2004, p. 31

/ref>

Plot summary

Shortly after Angela Cameron gets married, an African-American man breaks into her house, kills her husband and son, and rapes her sister. As a result, she decides to move to New York City and learn more about the situation of African-Americans. Meanwhile, African-Americans and Communists try to overthrow the government, and they succeed: the country becomes known as the 'Soviet Republic of the United States' and the only newspaper available in New York City is the ''Soviet Herald''.Glen David Gold
Excerpt: 'Thomas Dixon: Jael-baiter'
''

NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

'', June 4, 2007Thomas Dixon, 1864-1946
''Documenting the American South'' However, she meets her childhood sweetheart and decides everything is not lost. Eventually, she donates US$10 million to found the

Marcus Garvey Marcus Mosiah Garvey Sr. (17 August 188710 June 1940) was a Jamaican political activist, publisher, journalist, entrepreneur, and orator. He was the founder and first President-General of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African ...

Colonization Society, whose aim is to repatriate African Americans to the African continent.

Critical reception

The book was reprinted four times in the first two months of publication. In 2005, it was reprinted by the

University Press of Kentucky The University Press of Kentucky (UPK) is the scholarly publisher for the Commonwealth of Kentucky, and was organized in 1969 as successor to the University of Kentucky Press. The university had sponsored scholarly publication since 1943. In 194 ...

. According to biographer Anthony Slide, the novel "is generally seen as a critical failure." Indeed, ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' called it "a nightmare melodrama" and "the expression of a panic fear." Alluding to World War II, the ''

New York Herald Tribune The ''New York Herald Tribune'' was a newspaper published between 1924 and 1966. It was created in 1924 when Ogden Mills Reid of the ''New-York Tribune'' acquired the ''New York Herald''. It was regarded as a "writer's newspaper" and competed ...

'' suggested, "it is not as wildly incredible today as it might have seemed a few short weeks ago." The novel was praised by

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Flaming Sword, The 1939 American novels Anti-communist propaganda University Press of Kentucky books Novels based on plays Novels by Thomas Dixon Jr. Novels about rape Propaganda books and pamphlets