A poor white farmer refuses to defend slave-owners, and leads an armed rebellion against the Confederacy. Based on a true story. [ Free State of Jones credits: Dir: Gary Ross/ Matthew McConaughey, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Mahershala Ali/ 139 min/ Action-Adventure, Biography/ Anti-Draft, Anti-War, Second Amendment]
External Reviews
“Libertarian ode to the free state that exists within all of us.”
–Vanity Fair
“Nobility pours off the screen in waves with Knight and his multicultural community growing in number and bearing arms to inhabit their own ‘free state’.”
–Radio Times
“Any American anti-government, libertarian tale goes hand in hand with firepower, and Free State of Jones does offer up a strong argument for the Second Amendment, a battle that rages on today.
–Orange County Register
“Free State of Jones is an extraordinarily ambitious film, and for that reason, it’s not perfect…Nonetheless, until something better comes along, this is the movies’ most comprehensive and honest portrait of a pivotal and misunderstood period of American history.”
–SF Gate
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Wikipedia
“Newton Knight, a poor white farmer, led an extraordinary rebellion during the Civil War. With a company of like-minded white men in southeast Mississippi, he did what many Southerners now regard as unthinkable. He waged guerrilla war against the Confederacy and declared loyalty to the Union. In the spring of 1864, the Knight Company overthrew the Confederate authorities in Jones County and raised the United States flag over the county courthouse in Ellisville. The county was known as the ‘Free State of Jones’, and some say it actually seceded from the Confederacy.”
–“The True Story of the Free iState of Jones,” Smithsonian Magazine