---
title: 'Darkwater: Voices from within the Veil'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/library/dubois-darkwater-1920/
description: 'Darkwater: Voices from within the Veil by W. E. B. Du Bois (1920), full text with provenance and rights.'
section: FRAME
---

![Illustration: an interwar radio-and-newsreel intelligence collage with a 1930s map of Europe and propaganda poster proofs.](https://propagandaarchive.org/static/generated/detail/hero-interwar.jpg)

[Library](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/) · Book

# Darkwater: Voices from within the Veil

At a glance

Ten essays and interleaved poems of 1920 on race, empire, labour, women and the war, including "The Souls of White Folk" and "The Hands of Ethiopia".

- **Author:** W. E. B. Du Bois
- **Published:** 1920
- **Origin:** United States
- **Length:** 67,595 words, 12 chapters

Full details

- **Edition:** Darkwater: Voices from within the Veil, New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1920. Text from Project Gutenberg ebook #15210, produced by Suzanne Shell, Audrey Longhurst and the PG Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
- **Language:** English
- **Text source:** [Project Gutenberg, ebook #15210](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/15210)
- **Text basis:** Human-proofread transcription by Project Gutenberg's Distributed Proofreaders.
- **Rights:** Published in the United States in 1920, so in the public domain in the United States; Project Gutenberg marks it "Public domain in the USA". Du Bois died in 1963, so in countries that use life plus 70 years the work stays protected until the end of 2033.
- **Rights checked:** October 2, 2026

On this page

- [Read the text](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/dubois-darkwater-1920/#read)
- [Provenance and rights](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/dubois-darkwater-1920/#provenance)

**Content note:** An American book of 1920 that uses the racial terms of its day, describes lynching, colonial violence and war, and includes a story of a child's death. Shown as printed. This object is shown as it was published. [Why](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/#as-it-was)

W. E. B. Du Bois's 1920 collection, written during and after the First World War. It includes "The Souls of White Folk", an argument about the connection between racial ideology and the war, and "The Hands of Ethiopia", on Africa. It is distinct from his earlier book The Souls of Black Folk (1903).

## Read the text

- [Postscript](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/dubois-darkwater-1920/01-postscript/) 274 words
- [Credo](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/dubois-darkwater-1920/02-credo/) 500 words
- [1. The Shadow of Years](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/dubois-darkwater-1920/03-the-shadow-of-years/) 5,930 words
- [2. The Souls of White Folk](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/dubois-darkwater-1920/04-the-souls-of-white-folk/) 6,615 words
- [3. The Hands of Ethiopia](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/dubois-darkwater-1920/05-the-hands-of-ethiopia/) 6,360 words
- [4. Of Work and Wealth](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/dubois-darkwater-1920/06-of-work-and-wealth/) 7,280 words
- [5. "The Servant in the House"](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/dubois-darkwater-1920/07-the-servant-in-the-house/) 6,561 words
- [6. Of the Ruling of Men](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/dubois-darkwater-1920/08-of-the-ruling-of-men/) 7,072 words
- [7. The Damnation of Women](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/dubois-darkwater-1920/09-the-damnation-of-women/) 7,270 words
- [8. The Immortal Child](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/dubois-darkwater-1920/10-the-immortal-child/) 6,598 words
- [9. Of Beauty and Death](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/dubois-darkwater-1920/11-of-beauty-and-death/) 7,671 words
- [10. The Comet](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/dubois-darkwater-1920/12-the-comet/) 5,464 words

[Download as plain text](https://propagandaarchive.org/library/dubois-darkwater-1920/dubois-darkwater-1920.txt) 67,595 words, with the provenance header above the text

## Provenance and rights

- **Edition:** Darkwater: Voices from within the Veil, New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1920. Text from Project Gutenberg ebook #15210, produced by Suzanne Shell, Audrey Longhurst and the PG Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
- **Text source:** [Project Gutenberg, ebook #15210](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/15210)
- **Text basis:** Human-proofread transcription by Project Gutenberg's Distributed Proofreaders.
- **Rights:** Published in the United States in 1920, so in the public domain in the United States; Project Gutenberg marks it "Public domain in the USA". Du Bois died in 1963, so in countries that use life plus 70 years the work stays protected until the end of 2033. Checked October 2, 2026.
- **Changes made:** Project Gutenberg's licence header and footer, the title page, the dedication ("Ad Ninam") and the book's contents list are not included. The postscript, which the book prints before the contents, is kept first. The prose poems and prayers that follow chapters are kept where they stand, with their line breaks. Line wraps rejoined; chapter headings set as number and title; italics kept as Gutenberg marks them (_like this_). Wording, spelling and punctuation are Gutenberg's.
- **Source file checksum:** `b0179e408ab2c7d5…` (SHA-256 of the download this text was made from)