The Free State of Jones Page #5

That flag right there

tells the tale.

Right now, what we do know

is that they're sending

a whole regiment of cavalry

this way.

That's a hundred horses.

We can't fight that,

least not in the open anyhow.

We was hoping to get some help

from general Sherman,

but it looks like

that ain't coming either.

Says he won't recognize us.

So it seems that we don't got

no country on either side.

And that's all right.

I guess we're kind of our own country.

That's right, newt.

If we're honest about it, hadn't we

been our own country for a long time?

- Yes, sir.

- That's true.

Now, Jasper here, he, uh,

obviously a lot more learned

than I am.

He was saying that, uh,

if in fact

we are our own country,

well then, by god, we ought to

stand up and declare it.

Yeah.

Yes, sir.

Even if they push us

back in the swamps,

if we're willing to die

for something,

we sure ought to be able

to say what it is out loud.

- Yeah.

- Absolutely.

Jasper, let me see

that paper there.

From this day forward,

"we declare the land north

of the Pascagoula swamps,

south of enterprise and east of the

Pearl river to the Alabama border

to be a free state of Jones."

Yeah.

"And as such,

we do hereby proclaim

and affirm

the following principles.

Number one:

No man oughta stay poor

so another man can get rich."

"Number two:

No man oughta tell another man what he's

gotta live for or what he's gotta die for."

Nope.

"Number three:

What you put in the ground

is yours to tend and harvest, and ain't no man

oughta be able to take that away from you."

Number four:

"Every man's a man."

Mm-hmm.

If you can walk on two legs,

you're a man.

Right.

It's as simple as that.

Lord.

- But we won.

- I know.

And they said...

General Sherman, he said...

- I know what they said.

- He said 40 acres and a mule

for every Freedman

and they families.

They took that back.

Who did?

President did.

There's a new president now

name of Johnson.

Johnson.

So who gets all of this?

He does.

- Eakins.

- Eakins?

Eakins. He gets to come back?

- Yeah, if he takes an oath.

- What kind of oath?

Swearing to be loyal

to the union.

Ain't no union, man.

- No? - I can take an oath

swearing to be a canary.

- It don't mean I can fly.

- That's it.

I don't understand.

Are we free or we ain't free?

You understand.

We're free and we ain't free.

Place your left hand on the

Bible and raise your right.

I, James Eakins,

I, James Eakins,

do solemnly swear in the

presence of almighty god...

Do solemnly swear in the

presence of almighty god...

That I will henceforth

faithfully support, protect

and defend the constitution

of the United States...

That I will henceforth

faithfully support, protect

and defend the constitution

of the United States...

And the union

of the states thereunder.

And the union

of the states thereunder.

So help me god.

So help me god.

Welcome back.

Thank you.

Hmm. I ain't leavin'.

We got to.

You got to leave too.

- Why? -'Cause the

winds is shiftin'.

I don't care. And you

can't fight it this time.

Where we gonna go?

Huh? Go where?

Soso.

Soso?

You sell this place,

we could buy all of soso.

Yeah, and grow what, huh? Can't get

nothin' in that ground up there.

You grew crops in a swamp.

Yeah.

I think you can coax

a little corn out of soso.

All the way through?

All the way.

Rachel, students:

Man, pan, tan,

ran, fan.

Very good.

Second row, c-o-b is...

Rachel, students:

Cob,

job, mob, rob.

Chester.

Need some bailin' wire.

That's a cent a foot.

I'll take 60 feet.

Fixing a fence?

Yeah, that's what

bailing wire's for.

You up in soso, right? Mm-hmm.

Thought it was just

a bunch of n*ggers up there,

cap'n newt.

No, Chester.

Ain't no n*ggers

up there at all.

Got nowhere to go.

They said you was here

now making a new farm.

Yeah, I am.

I'm sorry. I just...

I don't know where to go.

Rebs burned my first farm.

Sherman burned my second.

Guess they agree on that.

Yeah, they do.

We walked all the way

from Birmingham.

He's seen things

nobody should see.

You stay here.

Here.

I know y'all

have your own home now.

No, that's fine.

You stay here with us.

There's a little shack

on the other side of the farm.

We could fix it for you.

Mm-hmm.

- Y'all don't have to do that.

- No, we do.

You're kin.

Hey.

What you say I teach you

how to fish? Yeah?

You know I'm your pa?

Yeah, I know.

Here.

Got something for you.

S-s-shoop.

Look at that.

That's yours now, all right?

Take good care of that.

Oh, let's not

start cryin' now, huh?

Ain't that bad of a house.

Y'all come on inside.

Come on.

The prosecution would lead you

to believe... go on in now.

That when Serena knight left Jones

county in the middle of the war,

she never came back.

Their entire case

hinges on the idea

that if newt knight had

a second child after the war,

that child had to be

with Rachel knight.

But there's a problem with that,

ladies and gentlemen,

because as these census records

clearly indicate,

Serena knight

came home to soso in 1865.

Two women...

Living on one farm...

At the same time.

Now, normally

in a court of law...

We have trouble

proving who the father is.

But in this strange,

strange case,

we have trouble

proving the mother.

Time has a way

of changing things.

Mr. newt!

Mr. newt!

Mr. newt!

Whoa, whoa, whoa, hey, hey, hey.

He gone.

What? What?

He gone down there.

Who?

He got a gun.

Who? Moses?

Uh-huh. They took him.

They took our boy.

Who did? A bunch of men from Eakins.

First thing this mornin'.

Sir, he got a gun.

Moses!

Stay back now!

Moses, stop!

Stop, hear?

You gonna get killed.

It ain't you.

It ain't your fight!

I'm goin' with you.

You his daddy now?

No, sir.

Huh? I'm his daddy.

It's my boy.

It's your boy.

I'm goin' with you. This

is the only help I need.

I'm goin' with you.

They'll arrest me.

They'll kill you.

Can't nobody own my boy now!

No, sir.

It's your boy.

I'm tired. Yes, sir.

Let's go get him.

You and me.

Come on now.

That's what we gonna do.

That's my boy.

They'll arrest me.

They'll kill you.

Isaac.

Don't worry. It's me, your uncle newt.

I'm taking you out of here.

Right now?

Yeah, right now.

Come on.

Here we go.

Hold it!

Where you going with that boy?

Taking him home.

We got papers on that boy.

Papers?

"That the defendant,

Newton knight,

did on November 14, 1865,

intervene and interfere

in the lawful apprenticeship

of a negro child in violation

of Mississippi law."

A what? Apprenticeship?

What is a lawful apprenticeship,

lieutenant?

To quote

the statute on apprenticeship...

"If any apprentice

shall leave the employment

of his or her master

without consent,

said master may pursue

and recapture the apprentice

and bring him before

any justice of the peace,

whose duty it shall be

to remand said apprentice

to the service

of his or her masters."

- You done yet?

- You, sir, are out of order.

No, I'm not out of order,

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