I thought I had already shared this:
Free State Of Jones was INCREDIBLE! It helped me to be even more glad that the South lost the Civil War. The Confederacy was whitewashed IMMENSELY in the South by The Lost Cause revision. Free State of Jones shows just how terrible and harsh the Confederate military was on its own white people. It goes even deeper to reveal how fvcked-up the war industry is, in general. This film, and Cold Mountain, are essential Civil War films. FSOJ is based on a true story whereas Cold Mountain is fiction.
There is a really interesting mini-subplot during the film that reveals how the South- specifically Mississippi- was so inherently racist well into the 1960s. It was trying to deny Davis Knight- a descendant of Newton Knight- recognition of marriage to his "white" wife, and put him in prison for violating the race laws of Mississippi in 1948.