Legend of the Free State of Jones. [jones County, Mississippi.]

xii, 131 pages. Paperback: H 21.5cm x L 13.75cm. Paper covers rubbed with spotting and slight soiling as well as minor edge-wear; small surface paper loss at spine head with heel scuffed. Faint stining to text block's top edge. Past owner's ink signature and gift inscirption on front cover's blank verso; interior pages are clean. Binding is firm. Still a very good copy. Rudy Leverett examines the supposed Civil War secession by Jones County, Mississippi from the Southern Confederacy, a legend based upon the unofficial independence declarations of Newton Knight, leader of a group of Confederate Army deserters who, by 1863, controlled much of impoverished area located in state's southeast Piney Woods. Noted for its small, subsistence-agriculture farms and accordingly few slaveholders, the county populace may have had some ambivalence towards the Southern cause but the extent of local government assent to Knight's proclamations has long been debated since an 1880 courthouse fire destroyed many relevant records. However, Knight's comments earned the ire of the state government and resulted in two devastating Confederate cavalry expeditions which muted but did not quell Knight's insurrection. The anti-secessionist movement in the South is an intriguing facet of Civil War era history as there were several ardent pockets of such supporters in east Tennessee and well-documented incidents in Winston County, Alabama. For purposes of full discloure (and thus revealing potential bias) it should be noted that Professor Leverett was the great-grandson of Confederate Army Major Amos McLemore who was killed by Newton Knight's marauding band while assigned to Jones County in an effort to capture and return local denizens to their military service. Description copyright David Hallinan, Bookseller. ISBN 0878052275