Newton Knight November 10, β February 16, was an American farmer, soldier, and Southern Unionist in Mississippi, best known as the leader of the Knight Company, a band of Confederate Army deserters who resisted the Confederacy during the Civil War.
Local legends tell of Knight and his men forming the " Free State of Jones " in the area in and around Jones County, Mississippi , at the height of the war. The nature and extent of the Knight Company's opposition to the Confederate government is disputed among historians. After the war, Knight joined the Republican Party and served in Mississippi's Reconstruction government as a deputy U.
Knight has long been a controversial figure in the region, with people divided over his motives and actions. He and his allies developed a small mixed-race community in southeastern Mississippi. My father was born on November 10, , though the family records show it was His mother changed the record after he shot an African American boy to get him out of being punished in court. He was the eighth of the twelve boys, and was raised a poor farmer boy, making his living farming, also building houses for his neighbors.
His birth year has been recorded by his son, Tom Knight, in a biography as , and his grandniece, Ethel Knight, wrote that he was born in His gravestone has his full name as "Capt.
Newton Knight", born November 10, , died February 16, But the census records that Knight was born in November , likely from his testimony. However, it is possible Knight gave the wrong year of his birth to the census takers to hide his family origin.
