The State of Jones

The Small Southern County that Seceded from the Confederacy

De: John Stauffer, Sally Jenkins

Narrado por: Don Leslie

New York Times best-selling author Sally Jenkins and distinguished Harvard professor John Stauffer mine a nearly forgotten piece of Civil War history and strike gold in this surprising account of the only Southern county to secede from the Confederacy.

The State of Jones is a true story about the South during the Civil War, the real South. Not the South that has been mythologized in novels and movies, but an authentic, hardscrabble place where poor men were forced to fight a rich man's war for slavery and cotton. In Jones County, Mississippi, a farmer named Newton Knight led his neighbors, white and black alike, in an insurrection against the Confederacy at the height of the Civil War. Knight's life story mirrors the little-known story of class struggle in the South and it shatters the image of the Confederacy as a unified front against the Union.

This riveting investigative account takes us inside the battle of Corinth, where thousands lost their lives over less than a quarter mile of land, and to the dreadful siege of Vicksburg, presenting a gritty picture of a war in which generals sacrificed thousands through their arrogance and ignorance. Off the battlefield, the Newton Knight story is rich in drama as well. He was a man with two loves: his wife, who was forced to flee her home simply to survive, and an ex-slave named Rachel, who, in effect, became his second wife. It was Rachel who cared for Knight during the war when he was hunted by the Confederates, and, later, when members of the Knight clan sought revenge for the disgrace he had brought upon the family name.

Working hand in hand with John Stauffer, distinguished chair and professor of the History of American Civilization at Harvard University, Sally Jenkins has made the leap from preeminent sportswriter to a historical writer endowed with the accuracy, drive, and passion of Doris Kearns Goodwin. The result is Civil War history at its finest.

©2009 John Stauffer and Sally Jenkins (P)2009 Random House

Worth the time

Now I get why the Confederate monuments are such a big deal. No punches pulled in describing the awfulness of war.

Great historical review

I enjoyed all aspects of the story. It is a very graphic history of Civil War activities.

One of greatest book ever heard

The State of Jones I highly recommend Newton Knight change the Civil War History forever.

peeling back a layer of history

The Civil War is often portrayed as rich white plantation owners versus slaves and the North, but not everyone in the South was rich. In one moment, this book is a way of looking at the Civil War through the story of a poor white Southerner. In another, it is a crushing story of racism.

Great read

This was a part of Civil War history I had never even heard of before the movie. I bought the book immediately after and loved it. It read like an interview and was fascinating from start to finish. It explains the true nature of why the South fought - slavery, plain and simple. The "lost cause" was created afterwards by southerners who wanted to perpetuate slavery and those ideals. This is a must read for all and should be used in all high schools.

Eye opening

Great story of an in-depth look into the mind of the white man’s South before, during and even 100 years after the Civil War. If Newton Knight and his group of Southerners were the only sensible ones in the South, it’s no wonder why it has taken the South so long to rid themselves of racial prejudice.

compelling story about the war

As devastating as the story of the civil war is I was compelled to continue on. The narrator had me hooked on listening for the facts and interested in opinions. When I was in school as a child we never learned about Newton Knight, nor did we learn about southerners that were unionists. I had no interest in American history in college because the pain of poverty and racism is still a part of our country's narrative.

Very good

This is the first history book I have listened to. A very interesting look at reconstruction. I was more interested in the stories of the people than of the war. I had to skip the stories about the war. I am kind of amazed that I had never heard of a county that secedefrom the Confederation.

The third side of the Civil War

The reader was excellent, but the story is what matters. Through the eyes of an "every day" poor man in Mississippi you can see the impossibility of living in the South during the Civil War. Its not only the destruction of import from elsewhere but the stealing from the Confederacy itself.

It made me wonder how people could think of the Civil War as a valent effort for states rights, when those states consistently screwed over the poor for the gain of the rich. There are many parallels for today.

Confederate Insurrection-Rebellion against Rebels

This book recounts the fascinating story of the insurrection against the Confederate States of America led by Newton Knight and his band of Civil War guerillas residing in Jones County, Mississippi. The history leading up to the insurrection, like most such rebellions, is complex, but it relates in large part to a class conflict; Jones County was not a heavily agricultural county and many of its citizens said they didn't want to fight the plantation/slave owners' war for them. Knight was injured during the war and decided to go AWOL, came back to Jones County and caused hell for the Confederate forces.

This was quite a drama, including an illicit love affair between Newt Knight (married at the time it started) and Rachel Knight, a slave of his father, worthy of retelling through historical fiction, be it movie or novel. The two had children together and became common law husband and wife. The drama continued well into the 20th century with a 1948 miscegenation trial for Davis Knight, one of their male descendants who had married a white lady.

I recommend this account as well as "The Free State of Jones: Mississippi's Longest Civil War" by Victoria E. Bynum.