The State of Jones
With an opening reminiscent of The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pitman, Washington Post journalist Sally Jenkins and Harvard professor John Stauffer take readers on a journey into a part of Civil War history either forgotten, dismissed, poorly remembered or completely rejected by stakeholders of a particular kind of public and historical memory. Reading like a Hollywood script or Dan Brown novel the authors have revived for popular audiences the tale of Mississippian Newton Knight and those around him, including an ex-slave named Rachel, quite possibly his second wife, who led a secession movement within the secession movement of the Confederacy, by wrestling the county of Jones free from the State of Mississippi. This heroic tale is rather paradoxical as ex-Confederates lead an uprising against what they believe to be an unjust war — a rich man’s war fought at the expense of the small landed farmer. For the residents of the Jones County the Civil War had become a class struggle to secure the wealthy their precious institution of slavery and their empire of cotton. At the center of this particular contest, fighting alongside one another under Knight’s leadership, are poor whites and their black allies. The authors clearly believe this rather remarkable coalition is one that proponents of the Lost Cause mentality that held widespread sway from the end of Reconstruction through the Civil Rights Movement would have preferred to never have seen the light of day. As they state early on about the chief protagonist, Knight, “Depending on who told the story [he was] called a hero, outlaw, soldier or murderer.” The real story with this narrative may be the subtext that has been revealed since its publication: the power of a trade press versus a university press and which of those presses within the industry garners more money and notoriety for the subject matter and author(s). In 2001, scholar Victoria E. Bynum published The Free State of Jones: Mississippi’s Longest Civil War (Chapel Hill, UNC Press), which was well regarded among historians as the definitive account of Knight and his compatriots, and which Jenkins and Stauffer liberally credit. As a matter of disclosure this reviewer has not read Bynum’s account. A hue and cry has been raised in academic circles about the veracity and legitimacy of the popular account offered by Jenkins and Stauffer. Perhaps there never will be a winner in this sort of debate, which is not uncommon today as popular and academic history compete for readership and attention. What may well serve the interested community and those who like to wrestle with such issues is a disinterested historiographical treatment of Knight, his followers, and the subsequent story that contains all the components necessary to making a good yarn – violence, sex, greed and power. In either event it is suggested that readers inform themselves and make their own judgments. James A. Percoco James A. Percoco teaches U.S. and Applied History at West Springfield High School in Springfield, Va. He is author of A Passion for the Past: Creative Teaching of U.S. History and Divided We Stand: Teaching About Conflict in U.S. History. Percoco is a USA TODAY All-USA teacher and is an adjunct professor in the School of Education at American University where he serves as History Educator-in-Residence.
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Illustrated,, notes, maps, 402 pp., 2009. Random House, 1745 Broadway, New York, NY, 10019, $27.50 plus shipping. www.randomhouse.com.