By Vikki Bynum William Wesley Sumrall is the only man with the Sumrall surname listed on Newt Knight’s roster. He and his brother, Harmon Levi Sumrall, were nonetheless among Jones County’s strongest […]
A Guest Story: Terry Thornton’s “SHHHHHHHHHHHH! Let’s not talk about this . . .”
The following post is reprinted by permission from Hill Country of Monroe County, Mississippi: A Weblog by Terry Thornton. It was originally posted on Terry’s website on August 27, 2007. Terry graciously granted myself […]
Post on Nancy Brewer, a Free Woman of Color
For those of you interested in North Carolina Civil War history, please visit my latest post at Robert Moore’s Southern Unionists Chronicles. Nancy Brewer’s application for compensation from the federal government for property […]
Race and the “One Drop Rule” in the Post-Reconstruction South
By Vikki Bynum Many people, perhaps most, think of “race” as an objective reality. Historically, however, racial categorization has been unstable, contradictory, and arbitrary. Consider the term “passing.” Most of us immediately […]
What’s in a Marriage? Bynums on both sides of the Civil War Divide
By Vikki Bynum One of the genuine surprises of my research on The Free State of Jones was the discovery that my own Bynum ancestors were deeply involved on both sides of […]
Jasper Collins and the ‘Ellisville Patriot’
By Ed Payne (NOTE: This brief history of the circumstances surrounding the establishment of the Ellisville Patriot is being posted both to explain the newspaper’s relationship to the theme of the Renegade South […]
Your moderator is back on board
You may have noticed that there have not been many posts on Renegade South for the past week or so. The reason is that I made a big push this past two […]
An 1870 Letter of Support For Newt Knight’s Compensation Claim
The following letter of support was filed with Newt Knight’s 1870 petition for compensation. I particularly value this letter because it describes in the men’s own words the formation of the Knight […]
Renegade South 