Free State of Jones

Abstract

A rebellion against the Confederacy by poor white farmers in Jones County loyal to the Union, joined by a few former slaves, led to the establishment of the “Free State of Jones” during the Civil War, and the episode is the focus of a discussion by two prominent Jones County natives, retired U.S. District Judge Charles Pickering and Jones County Junior College history instructor Wyatt Moulds, and Charles Overby, chairman of the host Overby Center for Southern Journalism and Politics at Ole Miss