Storyline:The United States of America at the time of the Civil War: Defiant farmer Newton Knight (Matthew McConaughey) of Mississippi leaves the Confederate Army after Corinth in 1862 for failing to identify with their values of secession and slavery , As an act of rebellion, he teamed with other deserted soldiers and even a number of slaves to found his own state under the name "Free State of Jones". In Knights unprecedented community, whites and blacks live in peace and fight together against the southern states. Among his colleagues is next to the escaped slave Moses Washington (Mahershala Ali) and his sweetheart, the former slave Rachel (Gugu Mbatha-Raw).