About this item

Between late 1863 and mid-1864, an armed band of Confederate deserters battled Confederate cavalry in the Piney Woods region of Jones County, Mississippi. Calling themselves the Knight Company after their captain, Newton Knight, they set up headquarters in the swamps of the Leaf River, where they declared their loyalty to the U.S. government. The story of the Jones County rebellion is well known among Mississippians, and debate over whether the county actually seceded from the state during the war has smoldered for more than a century. Adding further controversy to the legend is the story of Newt Knight's interracial romance with his wartime accomplice, Rachel, a slave. From their relationship there developed a mixed-race community that endured long after the Civil War had ended, and the ambiguous racial identity of their descendants confounded the rules of segregated Mississippi well into the twentieth century.



About the Author

Victoria E. Bynum

Victoria Bynum is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of History, Texas State University, San Marcos. Her research focuses on Southern dissenters, including families that opposed secession and the Confederacy. Subjects include the guerrilla band headed by Newt Knight in Mississippi's "Free State of Jones"; the anti-slavery Wesleyan Methodist community of the North Carolina Quaker Belt; Southern women who defied the boundaries of Southern society; Southerners who crossed the color line socially and sexually; and African Americans who did not follow the dictates of Jim Crow. Her published works include THE LONG SHADOW OF THE CIVIL WAR: SOUTHERN DISSENT AND ITS LEGACIES (Chapel Hill, 2010) ; THE FREE STATE OF JONES: MISSISSIPPI'S LONGEST CIVIL WAR (Chapel Hill, 2001) ; and UNRULY WOMEN: THE POLITICS OF SOCIAL AND SEXUAL CONTROL IN THE OLD SOUTH (Chapel Hill, 1992) .

To learn more about Vikki Bynum's work, visit her blog, Renegade South, at https://renegadesouth.wordpress.com/



Read Next Recommendation

Report incorrect product information.