Hello and welcome to this day in esoteric political history from radiotopia.

My name is Jody Avergan.

To this day, October 12, 1863, in Jones County, Mississippi, a group of local residents, led

by a man named Newton Knight, began to act up, upset about the state of the Confederate leadership, the imposition of new taxes,

and perhaps a little bit of sympathy for the union cause, these southern men began to fight

back. There were skirmishes, killings, and ultimately an open rebellion

leading to what came to be known as the free state of Jones. Jones County,

Mississippi may be kind of seceding from the Confederacy. By the way that of course is the name

of a movie that was made about this incident which is how many people know this story

the Free State of Jones movie that starred Matthew McConaughey. We've been wanting to get to the real free state of Jones movie that starred Matthew McConaughey.

We've been wanting to get to the real free state of Jones story

for a long time, as I would say historians have a bit of a hard time

figuring out exactly what this incident was.

It was somewhere between a series of skirmishes to a full on righteous

war of independence so here to discuss as always are Nicole Hammer of Vanderbilt

and Kelly Carter Jackson of Wellesley. Hello there. Hello Jody.

Hey there. So before we go to Jones County Mississippi which is kind of I'd say in the

South Central Mississippi but before we go there can we talk about 1863 in a larger context of the Civil War? I mean my sense

Kelly is that this is the year in which the war just really starts to like

grind and feel like a real yeah I think both sides thought that this is going to be a very quick war and it turned out to be it was not the casualties are extremely high when you think of 1863 you think of Gettysburg you think of

high death counts you think of not knowing which side is going to win or lose you

think of maybe the New York City draft riots in which you know

...