Free State of Jones

Based on the true story of Southern farmer Newton Knight and his extraordinary armed revolt against the Confederate Army during the American Civil War. Fed up with fighting for the interests of the wealthy, Knight deserted, allied himself with other small farmers and, with the help of local enslaved people, led an uprising that brought Jones County in Mississippi to secede and create the Free State of Jones. His marriage to a former enslaved woman, Rachel, and his later construction of an interracial community made New Knight a fighting and controversial figure in the context of the American Civil War.