The State of Jones (50 page)

67
bartering and selling her goods:
Hahn,
A Nation Under Our Feet
, p. 4.

67
There was a lingering hint:
Genovese,
Within the Plantation Household
, p. 116. Information on Rachel’s independence and her ability as a folk doctor is from the authors’ interview with Dorothy Knight Marsh, Washington, D.C., June 28, 2006. The notion that Rachel dabbled in spells is from the authors’ phone interview with Knight descendant Kecia Carter, January 22, 2008. “They used to tell weird stories about Rachel,” she said. “They tried to say she voodooed Newt.” Also, from Ethel Knight,
Echo of the Black Horn
, p. 263.

67
lumps of cornmeal to stretch it:
Rawick,
The American Slave
, supplement series 1, vol. 10,
Mississippi Narratives
, part 5, William Wheeler, Leflore County, p. 2272.

68
a slave from Monroe County remembered:
Hahn,
A Nation Under Our Feet
, pp. 7, 41, 55.

68
fear of violent slave revolts:
Hahn,
Roots of Southern Populism
, pp. 116-17, quotation from p. 117; Thomas D. Cockrell and Michael B. Ballard, eds.,
Chickasaw: A Mississippi Scout for the Union: The Civil War Memoir of Levi H. Naron as Recounted by R. W. Surby
(Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2005), p. 19; Harvey Wish, “The Slave Insurrection Panic of 1856,”
The Journal of Southern History
5:2 (May 1939): 206-22.

69
seized a whip and flogged him:
Aughey,
Tupelo
, p. 199.

69
“different political parties”:
Hahn,
A Nation Under Our Feet
, p. 65.

69
Jeffrey was the issue:
On the 1880 U.S. Federal Census manuscript for Jasper County, Rachel gave her age as forty, and Jeff E. Knight gave his age as twenty-one. This information is consistent with all other census reports save for 1870.

70
If so, he had good reason:
Last will and testament of John “Jackie” Knight; it was perhaps a sign of Jackie’s esteem that Jesse Davis Knight was named co-executor of the estate, along with Altimirah’s husband, George Brumfield. The suggestion that Newton first took an interest in Rachel before the war comes from Knight family genealogist Martha Welborn, who heard it from Rachel’s descendants; interview with authors, March 29, 2008.

70
as cash property:
Last will and testament of John Knight. Fanny Knight in 1882 identified her father as Davis Knight when she joined the Church of Latter Day Saints; see Records of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Southern States Mission Records of Missionaries, Records of Admissions, 1878-1888, a copy of which is in the possession of the authors. The fact that Jesse Davis was Jeffrey Knight’s father was also publicly suggested during the 1948 trial of a younger Davis Knight, this one a grandson of Newton and Rachel, for the crime of miscegenation, details of which are contained in the final chapter of this book. Defense attorney Quitman Ross asserted to Henry Knight, son of Jeffrey and grandson of Rachel, “Your grandfather was old Davis Knight, wasn’t he?” Henry Knight appeared ignorant as to his white Knight lineage. However, he did testify that Jeffrey and younger sister Fannie were full brother and sister. See transcript of
The State of Mississippi v. Davis Knight
, December 13, 1948, Circuit Court of the First Judicial District of Jones County.

70
for, or against, secession:
Claiborne, in “A Trip Through the Piney Woods,” describes a political rally in the town of New Augusta.

70
“in Judea”:
Bettersworth,
Confederate Mississippi
, p. 1; Bettersworth,
Mississippi in the Confederacy
, pp. 21-22.

71
“Lord deliver us!”:
Bettersworth,
Mississippi in the Confederacy
, p. 341.

72
glares and murmurs:
The examples of fire-breathing secession speeches are quoted from Aughey,
Tupelo
, pp. 5-6.

72
“they were all anti secession”:
Knight,
The Life and Activities of Captain Newton Knight
, p. 87; testimony of Joel E. Welborn in
Newton Knight et al. v. United States
, Congressional Case 8013-8464.

72
sex with a mare:
Bynum,
The Free State of Jones
, pp. 6, 83-84.

72
“cannot stand”:
Interview with Ben Sumrall, August 21, 1936, WPA Collection, Jones County, record group 60, vol. 315, MDAH. On Lincoln’s paraphrasing the Bible and Aesop’s fables in his “House Divided” argument, see John Stauffer,
Giants: The Parallel Lives of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln
(New York: Twelve, 2008), p. 211.

73
tell the convention so:
Knight,
The Life and Activities of Captain Newton Knight
, p. 87.

73
politics and the state convention:
Bettersworth,
Mississippi in the Confederacy
, pp. 4-5; Freehling,
The Road to Disunion
, pp. 338-41, 445-62.

73
“commerce of the earth”:
“A Declaration of the Immediate Causes Which Induce and Justify the Secession of the State of Mississippi from the Federal Union,”
Journal of the Minutes of the Mississippi Secession Convention
, January 1861, p. 3.

74
second state to secede, after South Carolina:
For a summary, see McPherson,
Battle Cry of Freedom
, pp. 234-75, map on p. 236.

74
field of blue:
Bettersworth,
Confederate Mississippi
, pp. 7-11, 30-33; James W. Silver, ed.,
Mississippi in the Confederacy as Seen in Retrospect
(Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1961), pp. 16-21, quotations from pp. 17, 21; Bynum,
The Free State of Jones
, p. 98; Leverett,
The Legend of the Free State of Jones
, pp. 38-41. Bynum refers to Powell as “John H. Powell,” Leverett as “J. D. Powell.” We follow Bynum, whose sources are much better documented.

75
“Single Star!”:
Bettersworth,
Mississippi in the Confederacy
, pp. 31-32; Bettersworth,
Confederate Mississippi
, pp. 9-12.

75
“cause in which they believed”:
Frost, “The South’s Strangest Army Revealed by Chief”; interview with Ben Sumrall, August 21, 1936, WPA Collection, Jones County, record group 60, vol. 315, MDAH.

75
disloyalists, and traitors:
Leverett,
The Legend of the Free State of Jones
, p. 39; Bynum,
The Free State of Jones
, pp. 103-4.

75
defend federal property:
Lincoln, “First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1861,” in
Great Speeches
(New York: Dover Publications, 1991), p. 61; William M. Wiecek,
The Sources of Antislavery Constitutionalism in America, 1760-1848
(Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1977), pp. 276-77; McPherson,
Battle Cry of Freedom
, pp. 246-75.

76
“would like to shoot a Yankee”:
William L. Nugent to Eleanor Smith Nugent, August 19, 1861, in Cash and Howorth,
My Dear Nellie
, p. 46.

76
“get the big guns on”:
M. P. Bush, address to the meeting of the DAR, February 17, 1912, Lauren Rogers Museum, Laurel, Miss.

76
two men to desertion:
War Department Collection of Confederate Records, RG 109, 27th Mississippi Infantry, microfilm (M269), NARA; Leverett,
The Legend of the Free State of Jones
, pp. 64-67.

77
“no contrary opinion”:
Aughey,
Tupelo
, p. 25.

78
no husbands to help:
The Piney Woods farewell barbecue is described by former slave Elsie Posey in Rawick,
The American Slave
, supplement series 1, vol. 10,
Mississippi Narratives
, part 4, p. 1735.

79
prison in Virginia:
M. Shannon Mallard, “I Had No Comfort to Give the People,”
North and South
6:4 (May 2003), pp. 78-85; Foner, “The South’s Inner Civil War.”

80
“into their hands”:
Aughey,
Tupelo
, p. 106.

79
“towards the national government”:
Foner, “The South’s Inner Civil War.”

79
“Such be the doom of all traitors”:
Aughey,
Tupelo
, p. 27.

80
“as long as a southren lives”:
McPherson,
For Cause and Comrades
, p. 23.

80
enrollment can be guessed at:
Jean Strickland and Patricia Edwards, eds.,
Records of Jasper County
(Moss Point, Miss: n.p., 1995), pp. 131-32.

81
“under guard”:
Testimony of B. F. Moss in
Newton Knight et al. v. United States
, Congressional Case 8013-8464. Moss testified against Newton in his attempt to be recompensed as a Union soldier. Newton’s lawyer recited the story of the horse while cross-examining Moss and asked him if Knight was brought into the company “under guard.” Moss said he didn’t recall either incident.

81
“burned by his enemies”:
Deposition of W. M. Welch in
Newton Knight et al. v. United States
, Congressional Case 8013-8464.

81
“left his family destitute”:
Sworn deposition of John Mathews, H. L. Sumrall, Allen Valentine, James Hinton, and Madison Harrington, October 15, 1870, Accompanying Papers, H.R. 1814, Newton Knight File, record group 233, box 16, NARA.

81
urgent family matter:
Strickland and Edwards,
Records of Jasper County
, pp. 131-32; testimony of B. F. Moss,
Newton Knight et al. v. United States
congressional case 8013-8464. During the questioning of Moss, Knight’s lawyer contended that the discharge was the result of a special plea from back home. Moss could not recall the reason for it, but this is the most plausible explanation.

81
twelve-year-old Taylor:
U.S. Federal Census, Jones County, 1860.

82
“other people’s business”:
Knight,
The Life and Activities of Captain Newton Knight
, p. 36.

82
“Everybody was afraid of him”:
B. D. Graves, address to the Hebron Community, June 17, 1926, Lauren Rogers Museum, Laurel, Miss.; U.S. Federal Census, Jones County, 1860. Graves referred to Martha’s husband as “Bill Morgan” but he was probably mistaken about the name. According to Victoria Bynum in
The Free State of Jones
, there were two William Morgans in the area, father and son, but the elder Morgan was a married, forty-year-old farmer in 1860, and the son lived until 1926. Kenneth Welch believes the only “Morgan” in the county who fit the age and criminal description of Martha’s husband is Morgan Lines.

82
“my mother got tired of it and told my father”:
Knight,
The Life and Activities of Captain Newton Knight
, pp. 36-37.

82
“slip up on him and kill him”:
B. D. Graves, address to the Hebron Community, June 17, 1926, Lauren Rogers Museum, Laurel, Miss.

83
“we never were whipped any more”:
Knight,
The Life and Activities of Captain Newton Knight
, pp. 36-37.

83
didn’t see who fired the shot:
B. D. Graves, address to the Hebron Community, June 17, 1926, Lauren Rogers Museum, Laurel, Miss.

83
“He was a desperado”:
Ibid.

84
he demanded killing:
U.S. Federal Census, Jones County, 1870.

85
“steer clear of the burning masses”:
Wickham Hoffman,
Camp, Court and Siege
(New York: Harper and Brothers, 1877), pp. 35-37.

86
full of tadpoles:
Description is from Aughey,
Tupelo
, p. 203. Although we do not have explicit evidence that Newton walked rather than took a train or rode a horse back to Jones County, our interpretation of him walking back is consistent with accounts from other fugitives in the Deep South at the time. See John H. Aughey,
Tupelo;
Aughey,
The Iron Furnace: Or, Slavery and Secession
(1865; reprint, New York: Negro Universities Press, 1969); Surby, Chickasaw; Storey,
Loyalty and Loss;
John Roy Lynch,
Reminiscences of an Active Life: The Autobiography of John Roy Lynch
, John Hope Franklin, ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1970); William Baxter,
Pea Ridge and Prairie Grove, or, Scenes and Incidents of the War in Arkansas
, William L. Shea, ed. (1864; reprint, Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 2000); Inscoe and Kenzer, eds.,
Enemies of the Country
, essays by Keith S. Bohannon, Thomas G. Dyer, and William Warren Rogers Jr., pp. 97-120, 121-47, 172-87; Blight,
A Slave No More
.

87
“What shall I do with them?”:
David W. Blight,
A Slave No More
, p. 73. 87
“Kill, slay & murder them”:
Cash and Howorth,
My Dear Nellie
, p. 74.

87
“yelping dogs”:
Aughey,
Tupelo
, p. 130.

88
“wondrous kind”:
Ibid., p. 126.

88
eluding the dogs:
Ibid., p. 203.

88
“one and inseparable”:
Ibid., pp. 22-25.

89
“loud … and deep”:
Ibid., p. 83.

89
clandestinely fed and cared for:
Ibid., p. 47.

90
crossed trails with a runaway slave:
Ibid., p. 131. 90
“run it’s almost day”:
Ibid., p. 120.

90
“God carved in ebony”:
Ibid., p. 147.