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Book Review: The State of Jones

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The authors of this Civil War historic book tell the story of Newton Knight, a Jones County Mississippi livestock farmer who led a movement to support the Union cause in the midst of Rebel territory. Great liberties are taken by the authors in telling the tale, giving a decided slant towards making him appear as a saintly hero instead of a traitor to the Confederacy. The Confederacy is also descirbed by the Harvard Professor and the Washington Post writer in a thoroughly negative light, while giving the Union a pass as pushing the South into the War as a matter of economic survival and states rights. The authors have stated that their purpose of the book was to "explode the generally accepted notion that all white Southerners were fully united in a desire to form a new nation". Knight fought some during the war on the Confederate side, then defected, marrying a former slave. At one point in the early 1920s before his death, the U.S. Census even recorded him as being black instead of white. The county of Jones it will be noted was decidely against seceeding from the Union, as most of the county farmers raised livestock instead of cotton and had little need for slaves. The book encompases some of the more gruesome aspects of the war, including the Siege of Vicksburg, covering a period of sixty years in the life of Newton Knight from pre-Civil War through Reconstruction. An interesting read for the historical aspects, but needs to be taken in context, as the authors clearly slanted the scope of the book and it was formulated for the clear purpose as a screenplay for a future movie.