Jones County, Mississippi
Encyclopedia
History
Jones County, formed out parts of Covington and Wayne counties, was established on January 24, 1826 and was named for John Paul JonesJohn Paul Jones
John Paul Jones was a Scottish sailor and the United States' first well-known naval fighter in the American Revolutionary War. Although he made enemies among America's political elites, his actions in British waters during the Revolution earned him an international reputation which persists to...
. There are other counties named Jones, but it appears that this is the only one named for John Paul Jones. Ellisville
Ellisville, Mississippi
Ellisville is a city in Jones County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 3,465 at the time of the 2000 census.-History:The city is named for Powhatan Ellis, a former U.S. Senator for Mississippi and descendant of Chief Powhatan, father of Pocahontas...
, the county seat, was named for Powhatan Ellis
Powhatan Ellis
Powhatan Ellis was a United States Senator from Mississippi and a United States federal judge.Born at "Red Hill" in Amherst County, Virginia, he graduated from Washington Academy in 1809, attended Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania in 1809 and 1810, receiving an A.B., and studied law at...
, a member of the Mississippi Legislature who claimed to be a direct descendant of Pocahontas
Pocahontas
Pocahontas was a Virginia Indian notable for her association with the colonial settlement at Jamestown, Virginia. She was the daughter of Chief Powhatan, the head of a network of tributary tribal nations in Tidewater Virginia...
. During the economic hard times in the 1830s and 1840s, there was an exodus of population from South Mississippi, principally to Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
, and the slogan "GTT" ("Gone to Texas") came into currency. The situation was especially acute in Jones County, which became so depopulated that it acquired the derisive nickname "The Free State of Jones".
During the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
, Jones County and neighboring counties, especially Covington County
Covington County, Mississippi
-2010 Census:As of the most recent census, 2010, the population of Covington County is 19,568, only a slight increase from 2000. Racially, the population was distributed with 62.7% being White, 34.7% Black/African American, 1.9% Hispanic/Latino, 0.2% Asian, 0.1% American Indian/Alaskan Native, and...
to its west, became a haven for Confederate deserters. A group of men, called Knight's Company, led by Captain Newton Knight
Newton Knight
Captain Newton Knight was the grandson of John "Jackie" Knight, who was awarded land grants for his service in the War of 1812 in Jones County, Mississippi and owned slaves. Unlike many in his family and his state Newton Knight was against slavery and favored equality between races...
engaged in sporadic battles with State and Confederate units sent to arrest them for desertion. The notoriety of Captain Knight's "rebellion" led to the fabrication of elaborate stories alleging Jones County's "secession" from the Confederacy and the establishment of an entity called "The Free State of Jones". The event was heavily fictionalized in the 1948 movie Tap Roots
Tap Roots
Tap Roots is a 1948 period film set during the American Civil War. It is very loosely based on the true life story of Newton Knight, a farm owner who attempted to secede Jones County from Mississippi....
. In fact, Jones County never seceded from the Confederacy.
A controversy exists among historians as to the extent and breadth of the Jones County rebellion.
The notion that Jones County seceded from the confederacy was put to rest by Rudy H. Leverett in 1984. His seminal book on the topic, Legend of the Free State of Jones, originally published by University Press of Mississippi in 1984 (in reprint as of 2009), was the first scholarly book on the events in Jones County before and during the American Civil War. Leverett enumerated multiple factors establishing Jones County residents' overwhelming loyalty to the Confederacy, including (1) the proportion of eligible men in the county who served the Confederacy; (2) the militant response of area residents to a Union raid at Rocky Creek balanced against their cordial reception of expeditions by Confederate officers Maury and Lowry; (3) the repeated written requests of area residents to Confederate authorities for assistance defending against deserters; (4) the community's shunning after the war of Newt Knight; and (5) the renaming of the county by popular request "after the war to honor the two greatest heroes of the Confederacy, and this at a time when genuine Union supporters could be expected to be at the zenith of their influence". Leverett concludes that while "few of these people had any real stake in the great economic and political issues that precipitated the war and that most of them opposed the political policy of secession [of the South from the Union]", "the threat of coercion of the South by the North galvanized the loyalties of Jones Countians to their region and their way of life. And for most of them, that loyalty never wavered." It should be noted that Rudy H. Leverett was the Great-grandson of Major Amos McLemore, whom Newton Knight and his band killed while McLemore was engaged in the duty of capturing and returning the Jones County deserters to Confederate military duty. Without rebutting the facts Leverett presents, John Stauffer and Sally Jenkins (see below) have attacked Leverett's book as having been written to discredit Knight and glorify Leverett's kin.
The label, "Free State of Jones", may have predated the Civil War. According to alternate theories of the term's origin, "Free State of Jones" came to be associated with Jones County for one of two reasons: 1) in reference to the county's reputation as a sparsely populated "backwater" of the young state, whose few residents were notorious for their disdain for organized governmental authority, or 2) due to a period of time in the early 1840s when, due to low population numbers and lack of legal proceedings, the county was left without duly-inducted legal and/or civil authorities. The true origin of the nickname could be traced back to either or both of these conditions.
As Mississippi debated the secession question, the state called a secession convention which met in January 1861. Two men from Jones County vied to represent the county at the convention: J.M. Bayliss was the pro-secession candidate and John Hathorne Powell, Jr. was the anti-secession candidate. Powell was elected to represent Jones County at the convention but when he did so, he voted for secession. Legend has it that, for his vote, he was burned in effigy in Ellisville, the county seat. The reality is more complicated, for the only votes possible at the Secession Convention were for immediate secession, on the one hand, or a more cautious, co-operative approach to secession among several Southern states, on the other. Powell almost certainly voted for the more conservative approach to secession—the only position realistically available to him that was consistent with the anti-secessionist views of his constituency.
Although Jones Countians opposed the South's secession from the Union on the eve of the Civil War, the greater proportion of the County's able-bodied men served the Confederate army without incident once that issue was mooted. One such man was Amos McLemore
Amos McLemore
Amos McLemore of Jones County, Mississippi, was a schoolteacher, Methodist Episcopal minister and merchant. The oldest son of John and Anna Maria McLemore, he opposed Southern secession from the Union in the months preceding the American Civil War but nevertheless volunteered to command a company...
, until the war a Jones County schoolteacher and pastor and of a family established in the South for nearly two hundred years. McLemore took charge as Major of the Rosin Heels, "the second [company] among eight raised in the area that consisted of all, or significant numbers of Jones County men. In spite of pre-War opposition to secession and the number of "transient deserters" in the county, Leverett asserts that the activities of such formerly anti-secessionist individuals as McLemore along with the facts "that virtually every able-bodied man in the county was on active duty in organizations such as those commanded by McLemore ... and that the Union raiding party entering the county in June of 1863 was captured by civilians, and the Union prisoners had to be protected from the local citizens" -- among other facts—present undeniable evidence that the citizens of Jones County were loyal to the Confederacy.
- -The "Rosin Heels"
One of these deserters and his followers murdered Major McLemore in October 1863 when McLemore was dispatched temporarily from the front back to Jones County to round up deserters who had returned there. The leader of a number of the resident deserters, Newton Knight, shot McLemore in the back as McLemore and other officers and friends sat around the fireplace of state Representative Amos Deason's house in Ellisville.
Victoria Bynum, whose father was born in Jones County, became interested in researching the county’s Civil War uprising after learning of its alleged secession from the Confederacy. Her book is a people’s history of the Free State, one that emphasizes the cultural, geographic, economic, and kinship roots of the anti-Confederate outrage that plunged the county into a bloody inner civil war between 1863 and 1865. Bynum takes this history well beyond the Civil War, however, by examining the interracial relationship between guerrilla leader Newton Knight
Newton Knight
Captain Newton Knight was the grandson of John "Jackie" Knight, who was awarded land grants for his service in the War of 1812 in Jones County, Mississippi and owned slaves. Unlike many in his family and his state Newton Knight was against slavery and favored equality between races...
and Rachel Knight, a former slave, and by tracing its legacy into the twentieth century.
Bynum details the expedition of Col. Robert Lowry into the area to address Confederate concerns about deserter collaboration with the Union Army, with reports such as that made on March 29, 1864 by Captain W. Wirt Thomason that the deserters were frequently in company of Yankees and warnings in early April by Daniel P. Logan that the deserter bands, "openly boasting of their being in communication with the Yankees", were assembling in the area of Honey Island, adding that:
According to Newt Knight, during this period his company continually sought connections with the Union Army. He recounted how Jasper Collins had traveled without success to Memphis and Vicksburg to seek the company’s recruitment into the Union Army. Newt also recalled that “Johnny Rebs busted up the party they sent to swear us in,” explaining that a company of Union forces sent to recruit men of the Knight Company was waylaid by Confederate forces at Rocky Creek. After that, he said, “I sent a courier to the federal commander at New Orleans. He sent us 400 rifles. The Confederates captured them.” Newt concluded that “we’ll all die guerrillas, I reckon. Never could break through the rebels to join the Union Army.”
After the War, the Mississippi Legislature along with Jones Countians changed the county's name to Davis (for Jefferson Davis
Jefferson Davis
Jefferson Finis Davis , also known as Jeff Davis, was an American statesman and leader of the Confederacy during the American Civil War, serving as President for its entire history. He was born in Kentucky to Samuel and Jane Davis...
) and the name of its county seat to Leesburg (for Robert E. Lee
Robert E. Lee
Robert Edward Lee was a career military officer who is best known for having commanded the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in the American Civil War....
). The Reconstruction Constitution of 1869 repealed these acts and restored the names of Jones County and Ellisville. The county was divided into judicial districts in 1906, with seats of justice at Ellisville (First District) and Laurel
Laurel, Mississippi
Laurel is a city located in Jones County in Mississippi, a state of the United States of America. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 18,393 although a significant population increase has been reported following Hurricane Katrina. Located in southeast Mississippi, southeast of...
(Second District).
A more recent account, by Sally Jenkins
Sally Jenkins
Sally Jenkins is an American sports columnist and feature writer for The Washington Post. Prior employment includes senior writer for Sports Illustrated. She is a graduate of Stanford with degree in English Literature....
(of the Washington Post) and John Stauffer (chair of the Program in the History of the American Civilization and professor of English and of African and African American studies at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
), which developed from a screenplay, draws on what they claim to be more extensive research to emphasize the extent to which, in the view of those authors, Knight ended Confederate control of Jones County during the war, and the extent of Knight's Unionist and anti-racist sympathies, both during the war and during Reconstruction. Jenkins and Stauffer's book relies heavily on Leverett's and Bynum's scholarship.
Bynum has published a detailed three-part critique of Jenkins' and Stauffer's book, citing their use of suspect sources, unsubstantiated conclusions, and selective use of primary source material and their "stretching of the evidence to support highly exaggerated claims that Newt 'fought for racial equality during the war and after,' and 'forged bonds of alliance with blacks that were unmatched even by Northern abolitionists' (pp. 3-4)."
Film director Gary Ross
Gary Ross
Gary Ross is an American writer, director, and actor. He is best known for directing Pleasantville and Seabiscuit, both of which featured Tobey Maguire in the lead role...
is currently producing the movie The Free State of Jones. Ross hired Stauffer as a consultant for the movie. Stauffer's book deal with bestseller-writer Sally Jenkins and Random House for State of Jones arose from Ross's screenplay.
Demographics
As of the censusCensus
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...
of 2000, there were 64,958 people, 24,275 households, and 17,550 families residing in the county. The population density
Population density
Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...
was 94 people per square mile (36/km²). There were 26,921 housing units at an average density of 39 per square mile (15/km²). The racial makeup of the county was 71.11% White
Race (United States Census)
Race and ethnicity in the United States Census, as defined by the Federal Office of Management and Budget and the United States Census Bureau, are self-identification data items in which residents choose the race or races with which they most closely identify, and indicate whether or not they are...
, 26.34% Black
Race (United States Census)
Race and ethnicity in the United States Census, as defined by the Federal Office of Management and Budget and the United States Census Bureau, are self-identification data items in which residents choose the race or races with which they most closely identify, and indicate whether or not they are...
or African American
Race (United States Census)
Race and ethnicity in the United States Census, as defined by the Federal Office of Management and Budget and the United States Census Bureau, are self-identification data items in which residents choose the race or races with which they most closely identify, and indicate whether or not they are...
, 0.39% Native American
Race (United States Census)
Race and ethnicity in the United States Census, as defined by the Federal Office of Management and Budget and the United States Census Bureau, are self-identification data items in which residents choose the race or races with which they most closely identify, and indicate whether or not they are...
, 0.27% Asian
Race (United States Census)
Race and ethnicity in the United States Census, as defined by the Federal Office of Management and Budget and the United States Census Bureau, are self-identification data items in which residents choose the race or races with which they most closely identify, and indicate whether or not they are...
, 0.01% Pacific Islander
Race (United States Census)
Race and ethnicity in the United States Census, as defined by the Federal Office of Management and Budget and the United States Census Bureau, are self-identification data items in which residents choose the race or races with which they most closely identify, and indicate whether or not they are...
, 1.41% from other races
Race (United States Census)
Race and ethnicity in the United States Census, as defined by the Federal Office of Management and Budget and the United States Census Bureau, are self-identification data items in which residents choose the race or races with which they most closely identify, and indicate whether or not they are...
, and 0.48% from two or more races. 1.96% of the population were Hispanic
Race (United States Census)
Race and ethnicity in the United States Census, as defined by the Federal Office of Management and Budget and the United States Census Bureau, are self-identification data items in which residents choose the race or races with which they most closely identify, and indicate whether or not they are...
or Latino
Race (United States Census)
Race and ethnicity in the United States Census, as defined by the Federal Office of Management and Budget and the United States Census Bureau, are self-identification data items in which residents choose the race or races with which they most closely identify, and indicate whether or not they are...
of any race.
There were 24,275 households out of which 32.60% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 53.00% were married couples
Marriage
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...
living together, 15.10% had a female householder with no husband present, and 27.70% were non-families. 24.40% of all households were made up of individuals and 11.00% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.61 and the average family size was 3.08.
In the county the population was spread out with 25.80% under the age of 18, 10.50% from 18 to 24, 27.30% from 25 to 44, 22.20% from 45 to 64, and 14.20% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females there were 93.70 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 90.10 males.
The median income for a household in the county was $28,786, and the median income for a family was $34,465. Males had a median income of $28,273 versus $19,405 for females. The per capita income
Per capita income
Per capita income or income per person is a measure of mean income within an economic aggregate, such as a country or city. It is calculated by taking a measure of all sources of income in the aggregate and dividing it by the total population...
for the county was $14,820. About 14.30% of families and 19.80% of the population were below the poverty line, including 25.00% of those under age 18 and 16.80% of those age 65 or over.
Government and infrastructure
The Mississippi Department of Mental HealthMississippi Department of Mental Health
The Mississippi Department of Mental Health is a state agency of Mississippi, headquartered in Suite 1101 of the Robert E. Lee Building in Jackson...
South Mississippi State Hospital
South Mississippi State Hospital
The South Mississippi State Hospital is an acute care regional psychiatric facility of the Mississippi Department of Mental Health located in unincorporated Lamar County, Mississippi, near Purvis...
Crisis Intervention Center is in Laurel
Laurel, Mississippi
Laurel is a city located in Jones County in Mississippi, a state of the United States of America. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 18,393 although a significant population increase has been reported following Hurricane Katrina. Located in southeast Mississippi, southeast of...
and in Jones County.
Transportation
Hattiesburg-Laurel Regional AirportHattiesburg-Laurel Regional Airport
Hattiesburg-Laurel Regional Airport , nicknamed Airport City, is a public airport located in unincorporated Jones County, Mississippi, near Moselle, and approximately 10 miles north of Hattiesburg and 23 miles southwest of Laurel. The airport covers and has one runway. It is mostly used for...
is located in an unincorporated area
Unincorporated area
In law, an unincorporated area is a region of land that is not a part of any municipality.To "incorporate" in this context means to form a municipal corporation, a city, town, or village with its own government. An unincorporated community is usually not subject to or taxed by a municipal government...
in the county, near Moselle
Moselle, Mississippi
Moselle is an unincorporated community in southern Jones County, Mississippi, United States. It is located along U.S. Highway 11, north of Eastabuchie and southwest of Laurel...
.
Notable natives
- Lance BassLance BassJames Lance Bass , best known as Lance Bass, is an American pop singer, dancer, actor, film and television producer, and author. He grew up in Mississippi and rose to fame as the bass singer for the American pop boy band 'N Sync. 'N Sync's success led Bass to work in film and television...
: Singer with NSYNC - Jason CampbellJason CampbellJason Campbell is an American football quarterback for the Oakland Raiders of the National Football League. He was drafted by the Washington Redskins in the first round of the 2005 NFL Draft...
: Quarterback for the Washington RedskinsWashington RedskinsThe Washington Redskins are a professional American football team and members of the East Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . The team plays at FedExField in Landover, Maryland, while its headquarters and training facility are at Redskin Park in Ashburn,...
[traded to Oakland Raiders] - Mary Elizabeth Ellis-DayMary Elizabeth EllisMary Elizabeth Ellis is an American actress and writer best known for her recurring role as "The Waitress" on the FX comedy series It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia...
: Actress - Faith HillFaith HillFaith Hill is an American country singer. She is known both for her commercial success and her marriage to fellow country star Tim McGraw. Hill has sold more than 40 million records worldwide and accumulated eight number-one singles and three number-one albums on the U.S...
: Country music singer - Newton KnightNewton KnightCaptain Newton Knight was the grandson of John "Jackie" Knight, who was awarded land grants for his service in the War of 1812 in Jones County, Mississippi and owned slaves. Unlike many in his family and his state Newton Knight was against slavery and favored equality between races...
: Confederate deserter and self-proclaimed Unionist; anti-racist - Major Amos McLemore: Schoolteacher, Methodist pastor and one-time opponent of Southern secession from the Union, turned Confederate officer once invasion by the North was imminent, assassinated by Newton Knight
- Charles W. PickeringCharles W. PickeringCharles Willis Pickering, Sr. is a retired federal judge who served on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.- Background :...
: Retired Federal Circuit Judge who served on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth CircuitUnited States Court of Appeals for the Fifth CircuitThe United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit is a federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts:* Eastern District of Louisiana* Middle District of Louisiana...
. - Parker PoseyParker PoseyParker Christian Posey is an American actress. She became known during the 1990s after a series of roles in several well-received independent films. As a result, she has often been referred to as the "Queen of the Indies"....
: Actress - Leontyne PriceLeontyne PriceMary Violet Leontyne Price is an American soprano. Born and raised in the Deep South, she rose to international acclaim in the 1950s and 1960s, and was one of the first African Americans to become a leading artist at the Metropolitan Opera.One critic characterized Price's voice as "vibrant",...
: Operatic soprano
See also
- National Register of Historic Places listings in Jones County, Mississippi
Further reading
- Victoria E. Bynum, The Free State of Jones: Mississippi's Longest Civil War (The University of North Carolina Press 2002).
- Downing, David C. A South Divided: Portraits of Dissent in the Confederacy. Nashville: Cumberland House, 2007. ISBN 978-1-58182-587-9
- Jenkins, Sally, and John Stauffer. The State of Jones. New York: Random House, 2009. ISBN 978-0-385-52593-0
- Leverett, Rudy H., Legend of the Free State of Jones, University Press of Mississippi, 1984, 2nd printing 2009. ISBN 0878052275, ISBN 978-0878052271