Free [upd]: State Of Jones

Some scholars argue that the film over-romanticizes Knight, transforming him into a 19th-century civil rights hero. Others point out that Knight’s motivations were complex: he was certainly anti-Confederate and anti-slavery, but primary documents suggest he also harbored some of the racial prejudices of his time. For instance, he supported the colonization of freed slaves to Africa for a period, a common view among even some abolitionists.

This 1862 Confederate law exempted one white man from military service for every twenty slaves owned on a plantation, fueling the "rich man's war, poor man's fight" sentiment. free state of jones

The Confederacy, already stretched thin by the Union army, sent Lieutenant Colonel Robert Lowry (later Governor of Mississippi) to crush the rebellion. Lowry hanged ten of Knight’s men and terrorized the countryside, but he never captured Newton Knight. The Knight Company, as they called themselves, fought on until the war’s end in 1865. Some scholars argue that the film over-romanticizes Knight,

Knight and his followers didn't just fight off Confederate tax collectors (who were taking food and livestock from starving families); they established a mixed-race community. The film highlights Knight’s relationship with a slave named Rachel (played brilliantly by Gugu Mbatha-Raw), a union that produced children and challenged the racial caste system of the Deep South. This 1862 Confederate law exempted one white man

The story revolves around Newton Knight, a poor white farmer from Jones County, Mississippi. By 1862, Knight was a reluctant Confederate soldier. Like many yeoman farmers in the Deep South, he owned no slaves and had little stake in the plantation economy that the war sought to protect. What he did have was a deep-seated resentment against the “Twenty-Slave Law,” a Confederate provision that exempted wealthy plantation owners with twenty or more slaves from military service, leaving poor families to fight and die for a cause that actually enriched their neighbors.