Free State of Jones
May 27, 2016 3:17 PM Subscribe
The True Story of the 'Free State of Jones': A new Hollywood movie looks at the tale of the Mississippi farmer who led a revolt against the Confederacy (Smithsonian Mag). Newton Knight has always been a controversial figure. "This controversy was fueled in part by Knight's postwar marriage to a formerly enslaved black woman, which effectively established a small mixed-race community in southeastern Mississippi."(Jones County, Mississippi)
Rachel Knight was the name of the black woman he married. Part 1: Yvonne Bivins on the History of Rachel Knight. Part 2. Part 3. Rachel Knight: Does a Photo of Her Exist? Newton Knight's first wife was Serena.
An American Family: The Multiracial Knight Community. An interview with Jeanette Smith, a descendant of Rachel Knight.
Books: "The Free State of Jones: Mississippi's Longest Civil War." Victoria Bynum: Why I wrote the Free State of Jones. And "The State of Jones: The Small Southern County That Seceded from the Confederacy" by Jenkins and Stauffer.
The movie Free State of Jones will be released summer 2016. The movie stars Matthew McConaughey, Keri Russell, and Gugu Mbatha-Raw. Trailer 1. Trailer 2.
A movie loosely based on the life of Newton Knight, Tap Roots, was released in 1948. Here is the movie in full.
Rachel Knight was the name of the black woman he married. Part 1: Yvonne Bivins on the History of Rachel Knight. Part 2. Part 3. Rachel Knight: Does a Photo of Her Exist? Newton Knight's first wife was Serena.
An American Family: The Multiracial Knight Community. An interview with Jeanette Smith, a descendant of Rachel Knight.
Books: "The Free State of Jones: Mississippi's Longest Civil War." Victoria Bynum: Why I wrote the Free State of Jones. And "The State of Jones: The Small Southern County That Seceded from the Confederacy" by Jenkins and Stauffer.
The movie Free State of Jones will be released summer 2016. The movie stars Matthew McConaughey, Keri Russell, and Gugu Mbatha-Raw. Trailer 1. Trailer 2.
A movie loosely based on the life of Newton Knight, Tap Roots, was released in 1948. Here is the movie in full.
(I live a county over from Jones, and it is amazing how few people in my neck of the woods know anything about this. NOT hyped in our Mississippi history classes in school, I can tell you that.)
posted by thebrokedown at 4:27 PM on May 27, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by thebrokedown at 4:27 PM on May 27, 2016 [1 favorite]
According to my grandfather, Warren Smith, Ethel Knight’s book, Echo of the Black Horn (1951) was a “pack of lies.” Ethel was smart enough to create a fictional account of the Newton-Rachel saga; unfortunately, most white people forget that it is fiction and tend to believe every word of it. I decided that Rachel needed to be researched from an unbiased perspective and without prejudice, so I want to tell her story.
From Part 1: Yvonne Bivins on the History of Rachel Knight.
posted by cwest at 4:31 PM on May 27, 2016
From Part 1: Yvonne Bivins on the History of Rachel Knight.
posted by cwest at 4:31 PM on May 27, 2016
Collins would later name a son Ulysses Sherman Collins in honor of his favorite Union generals, Ulysses S. Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman.
Ascended High Master Troll
posted by The Tensor at 4:52 PM on May 27, 2016 [21 favorites]
Ascended High Master Troll
posted by The Tensor at 4:52 PM on May 27, 2016 [21 favorites]
I saw the trailer for the movie and thought, no way am I going to another movie about black people with a white guy as the lead character. YMMV but I am sick of that shit.
posted by Bella Donna at 7:00 PM on May 27, 2016 [5 favorites]
posted by Bella Donna at 7:00 PM on May 27, 2016 [5 favorites]
I saw the trailer for the movie and thought, no way am I going to another movie about black people with a white guy as the lead character. YMMV but I am sick of that shit.
OK. But the movie is about Newton Knight and his story. He's not a front for a story about black people. It seems that the movie is going to be about Knight and the people that were involved in his life.
posted by cwest at 7:06 PM on May 27, 2016 [1 favorite]
OK. But the movie is about Newton Knight and his story. He's not a front for a story about black people. It seems that the movie is going to be about Knight and the people that were involved in his life.
posted by cwest at 7:06 PM on May 27, 2016 [1 favorite]
And yet, dramatizing Knight's story was seen as more important and marketable than, say, Harriet Tubman's or Frederick Douglass's or... you know, someone who can't be played by Matthew McConaughey...
posted by TwoStride at 7:15 PM on May 27, 2016 [10 favorites]
posted by TwoStride at 7:15 PM on May 27, 2016 [10 favorites]
Absolutely. That's obvious. And that goes for almost all the movies Hollywood puts out these days. That's not only a Hollywood problem, it's a societal problem.
posted by cwest at 7:21 PM on May 27, 2016
posted by cwest at 7:21 PM on May 27, 2016
However I do find the his story, and the people involved with him, interesting. That's why I made the post.
posted by cwest at 7:26 PM on May 27, 2016 [6 favorites]
posted by cwest at 7:26 PM on May 27, 2016 [6 favorites]
Excellent post, cwest.
posted by kirkaracha at 7:40 PM on May 27, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by kirkaracha at 7:40 PM on May 27, 2016 [2 favorites]
As a white Southerner, I would like to take this opportunity to say MWAHAHAHAHAHA:
Even worse, the Confederate authorities had imposed the hated “tax-in-kind” system in which tax collectors took what they wanted for use by the Confederate armies. They took meat from the smokehouses. They took horses, hogs, chickens, and corn. They took cloth the women had saved to make clothes for the children. Confederate Colonel William N. Brown reported that the corrupt Confederate tax officials had “done more to demoralize Jones County than the whole Yankee army.” A planter in neighboring Smith County warned Governor John J. Pettus in November 1862, “If something is not done by the legislature to open the corn cribs that are now closed against the widow and the orphan, and soldier’s families, who are destitute, I know that we are undone. Men cannot be expected to fight for the Government that permits their wives and children to starve.”
I am not glad that women and children died! My shrill ugly cackling is based entirely on the thought of my local racist "HERITAGE NOT HATE" assholes watching this movie in which the original (wives & sons &) Daughters of the Confederacy are oh-so-nobly starved and robbed* by the Confederacy. Already I can taste the sweet, sweet schadenfreude of their angry tears.
*but not, y'know, ENSLAVED
posted by nicebookrack at 8:30 PM on May 27, 2016 [11 favorites]
Even worse, the Confederate authorities had imposed the hated “tax-in-kind” system in which tax collectors took what they wanted for use by the Confederate armies. They took meat from the smokehouses. They took horses, hogs, chickens, and corn. They took cloth the women had saved to make clothes for the children. Confederate Colonel William N. Brown reported that the corrupt Confederate tax officials had “done more to demoralize Jones County than the whole Yankee army.” A planter in neighboring Smith County warned Governor John J. Pettus in November 1862, “If something is not done by the legislature to open the corn cribs that are now closed against the widow and the orphan, and soldier’s families, who are destitute, I know that we are undone. Men cannot be expected to fight for the Government that permits their wives and children to starve.”
I am not glad that women and children died! My shrill ugly cackling is based entirely on the thought of my local racist "HERITAGE NOT HATE" assholes watching this movie in which the original (wives & sons &) Daughters of the Confederacy are oh-so-nobly starved and robbed* by the Confederacy. Already I can taste the sweet, sweet schadenfreude of their angry tears.
*but not, y'know, ENSLAVED
posted by nicebookrack at 8:30 PM on May 27, 2016 [11 favorites]
Apologies for the derail.
posted by Bella Donna at 8:33 PM on May 27, 2016
posted by Bella Donna at 8:33 PM on May 27, 2016
Bella Donna, don't worry, Birth of a Nation will out before too long.
(The one about Nat Turner, obviously, not the other one.)
posted by tobascodagama at 9:28 PM on May 27, 2016 [1 favorite]
(The one about Nat Turner, obviously, not the other one.)
posted by tobascodagama at 9:28 PM on May 27, 2016 [1 favorite]
I've never heard of this story, thanks so much for the post.
The South is wonderfully complicated, and this is just the kind of history to cite with 'Lost Causers' if you want to get them really riled up. It deeply upsets their historical fantasy of a unified Confederacy (oxymoronic?)
posted by rock swoon has no past at 9:37 PM on May 27, 2016 [2 favorites]
The South is wonderfully complicated, and this is just the kind of history to cite with 'Lost Causers' if you want to get them really riled up. It deeply upsets their historical fantasy of a unified Confederacy (oxymoronic?)
posted by rock swoon has no past at 9:37 PM on May 27, 2016 [2 favorites]
[H]e was “a man who lived by the Bible and the barrel of a shotgun"
Works for me!
posted by wuwei at 9:56 PM on May 27, 2016
Works for me!
posted by wuwei at 9:56 PM on May 27, 2016
What a fascinating story. I do think the film is going to have to be very careful to avoid the Great White Savior trope.
And yet, dramatizing Knight's story was seen as more important and marketable than, say, Harriet Tubman's or Frederick Douglass's or... you know, someone who can't be played by Matthew McConaughey...
Yup. Man, I would love to see biopics with some A-list talented actors for both of them.
posted by biogeo at 10:01 PM on May 27, 2016 [2 favorites]
And yet, dramatizing Knight's story was seen as more important and marketable than, say, Harriet Tubman's or Frederick Douglass's or... you know, someone who can't be played by Matthew McConaughey...
Yup. Man, I would love to see biopics with some A-list talented actors for both of them.
posted by biogeo at 10:01 PM on May 27, 2016 [2 favorites]
This Memorial Day, Honor the brave soldiers who died for this Nation.
Burn a Confederate Flag
posted by mikelieman at 1:21 AM on May 28, 2016 [13 favorites]
This is fascinating stuff. I'm not sure whether to expect much from the movie, but the history is pretty remarkable and seems well worth exploring. Nice post, cwest.
posted by brennen at 1:24 AM on May 28, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by brennen at 1:24 AM on May 28, 2016 [1 favorite]
And yet, dramatizing Knight's story was seen as more important and marketable than, say, Harriet Tubman's or Frederick Douglass's
In Tubman's case, soon to be remedied.
posted by AdamCSnider at 1:45 AM on May 28, 2016 [4 favorites]
In Tubman's case, soon to be remedied.
posted by AdamCSnider at 1:45 AM on May 28, 2016 [4 favorites]
The stuff about the Confederate taxes, foraging, and how it became a command economy towards the end, is probably worth an FPP by itself. I know Lost Cause-ers don't take slavery seriously, but they do associate godliness with capitalism and low taxes. Think it would shock them to know the heavy demands placed on Confederate citizens, and how much control Richmond, and the local generals / warlords, were trying to assert.
Looking forward to the movie and absolutely loved this post. I knew many stories of southerners rebelling against the South, but I didn't know this one.
posted by honestcoyote at 4:49 AM on May 28, 2016 [11 favorites]
Looking forward to the movie and absolutely loved this post. I knew many stories of southerners rebelling against the South, but I didn't know this one.
posted by honestcoyote at 4:49 AM on May 28, 2016 [11 favorites]
I seriously rolled my eyes the first time I saw this trailer over McConaughey being the great savior to black people. Is Hollywood ever going to stop doing that?
posted by octothorpe at 5:52 AM on May 28, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by octothorpe at 5:52 AM on May 28, 2016 [1 favorite]
Apologies for the derail.
No worries, Bella Donna.
Truth be told, I'm not expecting much from the movie. I will see the movie, but 99% sure I will have enjoyed reading about the subject more than seeing it portrayed by Tinseltown.
posted by cwest at 6:14 AM on May 28, 2016 [1 favorite]
No worries, Bella Donna.
Truth be told, I'm not expecting much from the movie. I will see the movie, but 99% sure I will have enjoyed reading about the subject more than seeing it portrayed by Tinseltown.
posted by cwest at 6:14 AM on May 28, 2016 [1 favorite]
"Newton ran his home in a harem-like fashion having simultaneous relationships with Serena, his wife, Rachel, and George Ann, Rachel’s daughter."
Between the above and his reputation for living by the Bible and his shotgun, here sounds more like a cult leader than political Robin Hood.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 7:46 AM on May 28, 2016 [4 favorites]
Between the above and his reputation for living by the Bible and his shotgun, here sounds more like a cult leader than political Robin Hood.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 7:46 AM on May 28, 2016 [4 favorites]
In Tubman's case, soon to be remedied.
I will watch the hell out of that. Viola Davis is outstanding.
posted by biogeo at 3:58 PM on May 28, 2016
I will watch the hell out of that. Viola Davis is outstanding.
posted by biogeo at 3:58 PM on May 28, 2016
As fascinating as the story is, Knight's multiple relationships with women in his own family skeeves me out. And I suspect the movie isn't going to show him sleeping with his wife's daughter.
posted by suelac at 4:41 PM on May 28, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by suelac at 4:41 PM on May 28, 2016 [2 favorites]
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posted by thebrokedown at 4:25 PM on May 27, 2016