'Evil twin' of 13th Amendment found in N.C.: Charlotte Observer

In the delicate days before the Civil War, Congress proposed a 13th amendment that would have prohibited Washington from interfering with slavery in states where it existed.

It was one of many last-ditch efforts to avert war and stem the tide of southern states seceding.

The amendment, known as the "ghost amendment," was signed by President James Buchanan and left for the new president, Abraham Lincoln, to send to governors for their legislatures to ratify.

Lincoln dutifully did so, sending North Carolina's copy to Gov. John Ellis with a cover letter that didn't endorse or oppose the constitutional amendment.

Last week, 145 years later, editors of Lincoln's papers discovered it among Ellis' documents in the state archives in Raleigh.

Books: How Celtic Culture Invented Southern Literature by James P. Cantrell

This seminal book of literary criticism challenges the common perception that the culture of white Southerners springs from English, or Anglo-Norman roots. Mr. Cantrell presents persuasive historical and literary evidence that it was the South's Celtic-Irish, Scots, Welsh, or Scots-Irish settlers who had the greatest influence on Southern culture.

Mr. Cantrell targets William Gilmore Simms as the most important antebellum Southern writer and devotes an entire chapter to his work. Among writers published after the Civil War, he focuses on Ellen Glasgow, Caroline Gordon, and the Agrarians. William Faulkner's writing receives special attention, especially the Gaelic influences on Thomas Sutpen in Absalom, Absalom! Unlike some literary theorists, Mr. Cantrell takes Gone With the Wind seriously as he dissects Margaret Mitchell's Southern epic. He uses the history of Irish Christianity in his explanation of Flannery O'Connor's The Violent Bear It Away. Among contemporary writers, Pat Conroy and James Everett Kibler each merit a chapter for their use of their Celtic heritage in their books.



About The Author



James P. Cantrell is a native of Warren County who currently lives in Germantown, Tennessee, with his wife of twenty years and their two sons. He learned the Gaelic and Cymric languages in order to specialize in Irish literature while working for his M. A. at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Mr. Cantrell later earned his Ph. D. in American literature with an emphasis on Southern literature from the University of Arkansas. He has also written the foreword for Pelican's new edition of The Clansman by Thomas Dixon, Jr.



How Celtic Culture Invented Southern Literature

by James P. Cantrell

288 pp. 6x9 Notes Biblio. Index

ISBN: 1-58980-330-2 $29.95

13-Digit ISBN: 9781589803305

Pelican Publishing Company: 1-800-843-1724 or 1-888-5-PELICAN