By Doyne
Phillips, Managing Editor for Southern
Writers Magazine
William Faulkner once said, “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.”
Nothing could be
truer especially in the South. And because of that there are always stories
that continue and grow as they go. The Free State of Jones is just such
a story. With an upcoming movie in June starring Matthew McConaughey I expect
it will grow even further.
During the Civil War some of the citizens
of Jones County Mississippi were
against slavery, succession and the Confederacy. One reason was Jones County
had the smallest population of slaves. As the men of the county went off to
fight with the Confederacy their beliefs made it easier to see reasons to
desert and many did. One in particular was Newt
Knight. Knight deserted after the Battle of Corinth and returned to Jones
County. There he joined with fellow deserters and former slaves to fight against the Southern Army that was
taking their livelihood away from them with taxes and thievery. Knight and a troop of 1,000 men eventually
became powerful enough to run most of the Confederates out of the county and
temporarily hoisted the Union Flag at the county courthouse in Ellisville. They
then declared Jones County as the Free State of Jones.
Knight went on to have a long life with 7
children by his white wife and 5
children by a slave that had once been owned by his grandfather. The children finding
it hard to find mates ended up marrying each other which led to interracial marriages and a small
settlement of Soso MS which a majority
of citizens were biracial. With the
common thinking of the South at that time and the “one drop rule” there was a
lot of animosity towards Knight and his descendants.
Knight was a hero to some but to the local
Confederates, Knight and the notorious Jones County was shameful. So in 1865
they renamed the county Davis County after Jefferson Davis and County seat
of was renamed Leesville after General
Robert E. Lee. In later years there was a vote and it was overturned and the
names returned. Knight’s status as hero or traitor ebbs and flows with history
and the current sway of social standards. For local History Professor Wyatt
Moulds, a direct descendant of Newt Knight’s grandfather, the movie is an idea
whose time has come. As for history I have always been fond of the idea that the truth and history are close
relatives but not identical twins.
As for the saga’s growth I expect the
animosity and hero worship of Knight
will continue. I am reminded of the split decision on the book and movie The
Help. Some saw it as fairly accurate and others just a polluted version
of an outsider. The beauty of it all is the South has many stories that have yet
to be told due to the historical and social opinions that have existed. But as
Bob Dylan said, “These times they are a changing.”
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