Thank you for attending my July 15 lecture at the Laurel-Jones County Library. I’ll first address your statement that “anyone trying to figure Newt Knight out will go crazy.” Well, I’ve been studying him for some twenty years now and my mental health is just fine, ha, ha!

Second, I stand by my statement that the Collinses were overwhelmingly Unionist in their politics. I am talking about the sons of Stacy Collins Sr. Vinson, Simeon, Riley Jasper, Warren, Stacy Jr., and Newton Carroll, all opposed secession and/or fought against the Confederacy, either in the Union Army (Riley) or in a guerrilla band. Only the youngest brother, Edwin, died while serving in a Confederate unit. Jasper and Warren, both of whom lived into the 20th century, were proud to call themselves Unionists and often did so. They did not consider themselves to have fought against their “people” as you put it, but to have fought, as Southern men, for their nation. To be a white southerner is NOT necessarily to have been a Confederate.

As for Ethel Knight, I DID cut her some slack–it was me who pointed out in my lecture that she must be viewed in the context of her times. But that does not mean that a historian should ignore the meaning of her words, and I make no apology for my critique of her book.

Finally, our economy is certainly in trouble today, but to say it is worse than a time when our nation held some 4 million people as slaves I find deeply offensive.

The overarching message of my lecture was that we should seek to understand Newt Knight in order to better understand a bloody, fratricidal war that had devastating costs for Southerners. But make no mistake, that war was caused by slavery (which is NOT to say that most Northerners wanted to end slavery in 1861!). We are fortunate to have rid ourselves of that institution despite many politicians of both the South and North. Our problems today are of our own 20th-21st century making, and going backward in time with some romantic notion of a war about “states rights” will not fix them.

Vikki Bynum

A great idea!

Thanks,
Vikki

Vikki

I read you excerpts of Jeff Knight comments about grave yards located south of Moselle, near Estabuchie. Do you have more information on their specific locations? I am orginally from Kelly Settlement, across Leaf river from Estabuchie, and heard stories as a kid from family (Kelly) members about “outlaws” who use to hide out on the old Jenkins place located in Leaf River swamps in that area. Do you know specifically where Newt Knight camp was, or did they move up and down the river between various locations?

Vikki