Legend of the Free State of Jones by Rudy H. LeverettMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
I have been waiting to read this until Free State of Jones (2016) was on Netflix so I could contrast and compare. Right into it, I found another film inspired by this pit of lore: Tap Roots(1948). That one has the added bonus(?) of seeing Boris Karloff do an entire film in, I guess, "brownface".
Well, one thing I must say about the audio book is the narration, at least in this Audible digital edition, is a bit mechanical in delivery and not engaging at all.
Still, the work does a good job about untangling truths and falsehood about a region known as the "Free State of Jones" prior to any Civil War era succession. (Apparently, this was somewhat in jest due to the low population of citizens and slaves.) While the country initially was against secession, it ultimately proved very loyal to the Confederacy, during the war and even after. While its swamps gave shelter to apparently multiple CSA deserter bands, it never was any kind of formal anit-CSA let alone pro-Union government and nothing as dramatic and on the scale of the battles and rhetoric in the entertaining Matthew McConaughey vehicle.
That is probably fine as this Jones has always been more imagined than real, it seems.
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