Leverett seems to believe that there may have been partisans with a genuine loyalty to the United States in southern Jones County but that Newt Knight was basically just a bandit. The term the Free State of Jones actually coming from a time in the 1830s when there was a low population in the County and not many public offices being filled. He makes no mention of Knight's black concubine..I forget her name offhand...Has the importance of this woman just been inflated to make Knight look like a John Brown of Mississippi? So far Knight seems like mostly show and no substance but this is the only book I've read on him so far. He did advance through the Confederate ranks pretty well before he deserted so he must have had some measure of physical courage.