Newton Knight established the Free State of Jones

Grand Old Partisan celebrates more than SEVENTEEN decades of Republican heroes and heroics. 


Today, I salute Newton Knight, born in Jones County, Mississippi, November 10th 1829. He worked a small farm in anonymity until the Civil War. Unusually for the time and place, he opposed slavery.

Knight was forced into the rebel army. While on furlough, impoverishment of civilians and depredations by tax collectors shocked him. That many slave-holders were exempt from conscription was another outrage.

October 1862, Knight deserted and went home. To protect former rebel soldiers and escaped slaves hiding from the Confederates, he organized a militia company, who elected him its commander. His one hundred twenty-five men battled against their oppressors more than a dozen times. Leading the secessionists against them was a future Democrat governor. March 1864, Knight hoisted Old Glory over the county courthouse.

Peace restored, Knight supported the Republican Party. He served as commissioner for distributing food to the poor and helped rescue African-American children still in bondage. President Ulysses Grant named him a deputy U.S. Marshal, and a Republican governor placed him in command of a militia regiment.

Knight married a former slave and had five children. When the Democrats regained control over Mississippi, he lamented that African-Americans "are to be returned to a condition of serfdom — an era of second slavery."


His epitaph: "He Lived For Others". The actor Matthew McConaughey played him in a movie.

Back to Basics for the Republican Party is my civil rights history of the GOP. To quote the book: "The more we Republicans know about the history of our party, the more Democrats will worry about the future of theirs. For more information, see www.grandoldpartisan.com. 

Here is a YouTube Video about this article.

Here is a TikTok Video about this article.

Here is an Instagram Video about this article.

Here is my Substack about this article.

Michael Zak is author of Back to Basics for the Republican Party, a history of GOP civil rights achievement.


Each day, his YouTube videos and TikTok videos and Rumble videos and Grand Old Partisan blog celebrate more than seventeen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. And, see Speech Raves for audience feedback from his presentations in thirty-one states.

Clarence Thomas cited Back to Basics for the Republican Party in a Supreme Court decision.

"This is the most amazing book about politics that I have ever read. The Overview should be required reading for anyone with even a minor interest in government. The remainder is an enthralling history lesson that I will never forget. For years, we have all been misled about the true nature of the GOP. This is the real deal! Read it and be proud!"

"Your book is a national treasure. I'm always recommending it."

"Michael Zak wrote the definitive history of the GOP."

"Back to Basics for the Republican Party is the most significant contribution to the Republican Party in the last twenty years apart from Ronald Reagan."

"Back to Basics for the Republican Party is more important to our party now than ever before."

and

"one of the best books I ever read"

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