Summary
Summary of The Call of the South
The Call of the South at a glance
Summary: 8 min to read
- Reading time
- About 7 h 45 min6 h 10 min fast, 9 h 15 min slow
- Length
- 110,800 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1908by Robert Lee Durham
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
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Key ideas
Key idea 1
A regiment shuts Graham out
In an Ohio armory, the Seventy-first regiment prepares to volunteer for war. Colonel Hayne Phillips stages the gathering with flags and music, while his wife and daughters watch from the balcony. Hayward Graham stands apart against the wall, watching men he wanted to join.
His friend proposed him, but the regiment rejected him after learning he has some Black ancestry. Brave, educated and patriotic, Graham feels pride, anger and shame together. The rejection sets the story in motion: his abilities cannot protect him from a racial rule.
Key idea 2
Family history reshapes Graham's loyalty
After his rejection, Graham demands the truth about his family.
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Key idea 3
Courage carries Phillips to safety
Near Valencia, Graham serves with the Tenth Cavalry as American troops face German machine guns.
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Key idea 4
Public fame hides a private debt
After the war, Phillips becomes its most celebrated soldier.
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Key idea 5
Pride keeps love from becoming clear
During a summer on the St. Lawrence River, Elise Phillips meets Evans Rutledge, a young Southern newspaper writer.
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Key idea 6
A luncheon becomes a political crisis
President Phillips says that a man's character matters more than his color.
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Key idea 7
Rutledge gives prejudice a reasoned voice
Speaking in the Senate, Rutledge supports the Hare Bill but attacks Phillips over the luncheon.
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Key idea 8
Recognition leads to a secret marriage
On furlough, Graham takes work as a White House footman under the name John Hayward.
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Key idea 9
Courage and love serve a prejudice
The novel places acts of courage and love beside claims about blood that have no scientific basis.
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Who it’s for
Readers of American history and literature who want to see how fiction shaped racial debates around 1908, and students of political fiction.
What this book is
What happens to a young man when the regiment he longs to join votes him out because of one line in his family history? In The Call of the South, Hayward Graham, a Harvard football star, stands in a crowded Ohio armory and watches the Seventy-first regiment volunteer for war without him.
Robert Lee Durham, a Southern lawyer, published this novel in 1908 as propaganda for racial separation. He argued that social courtesies between white and Black Americans lead to intermarriage, which he called a danger. It rests on stereotypes and racial pseudoscience.
In this summary
- 1A regiment shuts Graham outFree
- 2Family history reshapes Graham's loyalty
- 3Courage carries Phillips to safety
- 4Public fame hides a private debt
- 5Pride keeps love from becoming clear
- 6A luncheon becomes a political crisis
- 7Rutledge gives prejudice a reasoned voice
- 8Recognition leads to a secret marriage
- 9Courage and love serve a prejudice
A colonel's call for volunteers shuts one man out
The novel opens in an imagined near future. Germany has challenged the United States over Venezuela, and Congress has declared war. In an Ohio armory the Seventy-first regiment gathers to volunteer. Its colonel, Hayne Phillips, stages the moment with flags and music.
Three women watch from the balcony, the colonel's wife and his daughters, Elise and the younger Helen. Helen is quick and impulsive, and she idolizes her father.
Against the gallery wall stands Hayward Graham, tall, dark eyed and so light in complexion that most people never notice his race. His friend Hal Lodge proposed him for the regiment. The men voted him down once they learned he has some Black ancestry. Now Graham watches the cheering ranks with pride, anger and shame. He is brave, educated and patriotic, and he is shut out by a rule he did not make.
One vote against a volunteer sets the whole story in motion.
That’s 1 of 9 key points.
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Check yourself
Why does the regiment reject Graham?
Right. “The men voted him down once they learned he has some Black ancestry.”Not quite. “The men voted him down once they learned he has some Black ancestry.”
What does Phillips fail to acknowledge publicly?
Right. “He praises the Black troops in general terms but never publicly mentions his debt to the trooper.”Not quite. “He praises the Black troops in general terms but never publicly mentions his debt to the trooper.”
What is the author's purpose in linking social equality with intermarriage?
Right. “He wants readers to fear racial mixing and to see social equality as the road to it.”Not quite. “He wants readers to fear racial mixing and to see social equality as the road to it.”
Go deeper: the whole of The Call of the South
About 8 h to read.Start freePaperback, hardcover and large print, printed for you at cost, are on their way.Email me when it is printed
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 110,800 words
- Reading timeAbout 7 h 45 min
Questions about The Call of the South
What is The Call of the South about?
It follows Hayward Graham, a Harvard football star of mixed ancestry, from rejection by an Ohio regiment through a short Venezuelan war to the White House, where he serves as a footman and secretly marries the President's daughter.
Is The Call of the South a racist book?
Yes. Robert Lee Durham wrote it in 1908 to argue against social mixing of the races. It relies on stereotypes and false racial science, and historians read it as segregationist propaganda in the form of a novel.
When was The Call of the South written, and is it a true story?
It was published in 1908. The plot is invented, including the war with Germany over Venezuela and the presidency of Colonel Phillips. Real details of its time, such as the Monroe Doctrine and school funding fights, frame the fiction.
What does the title mean?
The title echoes the epigraph about fear coming like desolation and destruction like a whirlwind. The Call of the South stands for the South's alarm over racial mixing, which the author wants Northern readers to heed.
Who is Evans Rutledge in the book?
Evans Rutledge is a young South Carolinian and newspaper writer who loves Elise Phillips. He rises to the Senate, and his speech on the Hare Bill carries the author's central argument about race.
Cite this edition
Durham, Robert Lee. The Call of the South. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-call-of-the-south.
Durham, R. L. (2026). The call of the South. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-call-of-the-south (Original work published 1908)
Durham, Robert Lee. The Call of the South. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-call-of-the-south.
@book{durham2026call,
author = {Durham, Robert Lee},
title = {The Call of the South},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-call-of-the-south},
note = {First published 1908}
}
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