Leander's Lies

<p><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Elias Leander Muller did not hunt with Teddy Roosevelt in the Dismal Swamp as he claimed. He never represented North Carolina in the U.S. Congress. He never lived on a plantation.</span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Lies. All lies. </span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>In the post-Civil War South Elias grows up along the eastern edge of North Carolina's Appalachian Mountains. A gifted boy he imagines himself becoming a prominent politician or eloquent preacher. But early marriage and fatherhood trap him in the life he'd hoped to avoid: that of a poor tenant farmer. When the Panic of 1893 sends a financial blow to the entire country Elias like many farmers is heavily in debt. He abandons Emma and their sons. Going by the name of Leander he reinvents himself. </span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>The South has changed since he first mapped out his political ambitions. A Republican (as in the Party of Lincoln) he recognizes the futility of confronting the powerful Democratic Party. Where to go? What to do?</span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Leander is an anti-hero a man whose deceptions escalate at grave cost to others.</span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Until escape becomes exile.</span></p><p></p>