The Free State of Jones was a small self-proclaimed "free state" that existed from 13 October 1863 to May 1865, consisting of both white and black rebels who seceded from the Confederacy during the American Civil War. Before the Civil War, Jones County, Mississippi's population was only 12% slave, fewer than any other county in the state. This led to its heightened disloyalty to the Confederacy, as its residents were poor white yeoman farmers who had no reason to fight for the Confederacy and against the Union. In 1862, the army deserter Newton Knight found refuge among Moses Washington's escaped slaves in the swamps of Jones County, and he helped local families to prevent Confederate cavalrymen from stealing their crops and livestock as taxes. After the Siege of Vicksburg in July 1863, many Confederate deserters joined Knight in the swamps, and they began a guerrilla war against the Confederates, stealing crops. They captured a piece of south-east Mississippi, and, despite a lack of help from the Union (which many of the whites did not support), the Free Staters held out until the end of the war.
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