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Rachel Knight (1840 - February 11, 1889) was the African-American common-law wife to Confederate Army deserter Newton Knight (1829-1922). In 1881 she was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She was depicted by Gugu Mbatha-Raw in Gary Ross' 2016 feature film Free State of Jones .
Rachel Knight was born into slavery to parents named Abraham and Viney in 1840 in Georgia. [1] She was described as a 'Guinea Negro', "meaning she was racially mixed but did not look white nor was she light-skinned, but with 'nice hair' not kinky and shoulder length" similar to Australian aborigines. [2] She was sixteen years of age when she was purchased by John "Jackie" Knight, one of "Jones County's largest slaveholders" in 1856. [3] By this time she had given birth to two children, Rosetta and George Ann, whose father is unknown.[ citation needed ] In 1858 she gave birth to a son named Jeffrey who was fathered by Jesse Davis Knight, John "Jackie" Knight's son.[ citation needed ] In 1861, Jesse Davis Knight inherited Rachel as a part of his father's will, and by 1863 he fathered two more children with her, Edward in 1861 and Francis "Fanny" in 1863.
Not much is known about the details of Rachel's life. Towards the end of the American Civil War, she helped Newton Knight, grandson of John "Jackie" Knight, evade capture by Confederate forces after his desertion from the army. Newton's story was portrayed in the 2016 film Free State of Jones where Newton was portrayed by Matthew McConaughey and Rachel was depicted by Gugu Mbatha-Raw. While Newton was initially married to Serena Turner, he eventually was separated from her and married Rachel. Together Newton and Rachel had two children, Martha Ann in 1865 and John Stewart in 1868.[ citation needed ]
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints began proselytizing in the South, Jones county in particular in the early 1880s. Rachel was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on February 2, 1881, by Elam Wells McBride and was confirmed by William Thompson Jr. [1] Her daughter Martha Ann was also baptized in 1882 and John Stewart was baptized nine years later in 1891. Knight family researcher Kenneth Welch claims "Rachel traveled out to Utah but came back to Mississippi because it was too cold." [4]
According to United States census data, Rachel remained in Jasper County, Mississippi with Newton until her passing in 1889. According to family members "she died from having too many babies too close together", [4] as she had delivered a child every two years from the time she was fourteen. Rachel was buried in the Knight family cemetery-one of the few interracial cemeteries in the state-and Newton would later be buried beside her. [5]
Many of Rachel's children were encouraged by Newton to marry someone who was as close to white as possible, wanting to "erase that one drop of Negro blood in their veins." [4] The Knight family mothered by Rachel grew to have a reputation as the "white Negroes" of Mississippi due to their light skin color and straight hair. [6] As most of Rachel's later descendants were white passing, they fled to other states to start new lives in the 1920s and 1930s, enjoying opportunities that were unavailable to African Americans at the time . [6]
Rachel's great-grandson, Davis Knight, married Junie Lee Spradley, a white woman, in 1946. Two years later Davis was charged with violating the Mississippi state constitution that stated "the marriage of a white person with a negro or mulatto, or person who shall have one-eighth or more of negro blood, shall be unlawful and void." [7] During his trial, Davis asserted to the court that he was white as "his wife believed him to be white and his Navy service records listed him as white." [8] Initially the court proclaimed that because his great-grandmother, Rachel, was considered "a negro" that implicated Davis at least one-eighth Black and therefore was in violation of the law. This is an example of Mississippi's "one drop rule" which states that if an individual has any Black or African ancestry, they will be considered legally Black. [9] He was sentenced to five years in prison. In 1949, Davis appealed his case and "the Supreme Court of Mississippi reversed his conviction." [8] The Mississippi state laws against interracial marriage were nullified by the United States Supreme Court when it passed Loving v. Virginia in 1967 and formally repealed in the 1980s.
Jones County is in the southeastern portion of the U.S. state of Mississippi. As of the 2020 census, the population was 67,246. Its county seats are Laurel and Ellisville.
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During the history of the Latter Day Saint movement, the relationship between Black people and Mormonism has included enslavement, exclusion and inclusion, and official and unofficial discrimination. Black people have been involved with the Latter Day Saint movement since its inception in the 1830s. Their experiences have varied widely, depending on the denomination within Mormonism and the time of their involvement. From the mid-1800s to 1978, Mormonism's largest denomination – the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints – barred Black women and men from participating in the ordinances of its temples necessary for the highest level of salvation, and excluded most men of Black African descent from ordination in the church's lay, all-male priesthood. During that time the LDS Church also opposed interracial marriage, supported racial segregation in its communities and church schools, and taught that righteous Black people would be made white after death. The temple and priesthood racial restrictions were lifted by church leaders in 1978. In 2013, the LDS Church disavowed its previous teachings on race for the first time.
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Gugulethu Sophia Mbatha-Raw, MBE is a British actress. She began acting at the National Youth Music Theatre and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and gained acclaim for her roles as Juliet in Romeo and Juliet and Octavia in Anthony and Cleopatra in 2005 at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester. She made her West End and Broadway debut portraying Ophelia in Hamlet in 2009. For her role as the titular character in Jessica Swale's 2015 play Nell Gwynn, she received an Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Actress nomination.
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Leonard Wilford Hardy was an early convert in the Latter Day Saint movement, a Mormon pioneer and a member of the presiding bishopric of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1856 until his death.
Warner "William" McCary was an African American convert to Mormonism who was excommunicated from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1847 for claiming to be a prophet. Some researchers have suggested that McCary's actions led to the Church's subsequent policy of not allowing people of black African descent to hold the priesthood or participate in temple ordinances.
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Newton Knight was an American farmer, soldier, and Southern Unionist in Mississippi, best known as the leader of the Knight Company, a band of Confederate Army deserters who resisted the Confederacy during the Civil War. Local legends tell of Knight and his men forming the "Free State of Jones" in the area in and around Jones County, Mississippi, at the height of the war. The nature and extent of the Knight Company's opposition to the Confederate government is disputed among historians. After the war, Knight joined the Republican Party and served in Mississippi's Reconstruction government as a deputy U.S. Marshal.
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Free State of Jones is a 2016 American historical war film inspired by the life of Southern Unionist Newton Knight, who led a successful armed revolt against the Confederacy in Jones County, Mississippi, throughout the American Civil War. Written and directed by Gary Ross, the film stars Matthew McConaughey, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Mahershala Ali, and Keri Russell. The story is based on the history of Jones County, Mississippi, during the Civil War and the period immediately after it. The overall story follows the history of Jones County; some of the events portrayed are true. The film is credited as being "based on the books The Free State of Jones by Victoria E. Bynum and The State of Jones by Sally Jenkins and John Stauffer."
Green Flake was an early African-American member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and was one of the three enslaved African-American Latter-day Saint pioneers who entered the Salt Lake Valley on July 22, 1847. He was born into bondage on a plantation in Anson County, North Carolina. His enslaver, James Flake, took him to Mississippi in the early 1840s. There, James, his wife, and Green joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in 1844. The Flakes moved to Nauvoo, Illinois, in 1845. Green Flake received his freedom sometime in the early 1850s and married Martha Morris. Green and Martha had two children together.
Victoria Bynum is a historian specializing in the history of the Southern United States. She is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus of history at Texas State University.