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
By Richard Grant; Photographs by William Widmer
March 2016
With two rat terriers trotting at his heels, and a long wooden staff in his hand, J.R. Gavin leads me through the woods to one of the old swamp hide-outs. A tall white man with a deep Southern drawl, Gavin has a stern presence, gracious manners and intense brooding eyes. At first I mistook him for a preacher, but he’s a retired electronic engineer who writes self-published novels about the rapture and apocalypse. One of them is titled Sal Batree, after the place he wants to show me.
I’m here in Jones County, Mississippi, to breathe in the historical vapors left by Newton Knight, a poor white farmer who led an extraordinary rebellion during the Civil War. With a company of like-minded white men in southeast Mississippi, he did what many Southerners now regard as unthinkable. He waged guerrilla war against the Confederacy and declared loyalty to the Union.
Read more:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/true-story-free-state-jones-180958111/#ddQMexitmF8JVzyE.99
