Early Life
Knight was born in Jones County, Mississippi, in November 1837. There has been confusion over his age, as his son, Tom Knight, wrote that he was born in 1830, and his grandniece, Ethel Knight, stated he was born in 1829. Both Tom and Ethel Knight suggested Newton's mother, Mason, changed his year of birth to 1833 to protect him from legal repercussions after he killed a slave, though there is no evidence of this. The 1900 census states that Knight was born in November 1837, which is supported by census records from other years.
Newton was a grandson of John "Jackie" Knight (1773–1861), one of Jones County's largest slaveholders. Newton's father, Albert (1799–1862), however, did not own any slaves, and was the only child of Jackie Knight who did not inherit any. Newton, likewise, did not own any slaves. Newton has been described as a staunch Primitive Baptist, and unlike his father and grandfather, did not drink. He was probably taught to read and write by his mother.
Newton Knight married Serena Turner in 1858, and the two established a small farm just across the county line in Jasper County.
Read more about this topic: Newton Knight
Famous quotes containing the words early and/or life:
“Love is the hardest thing in the world to write about. So simple. You’ve got to catch it through details, like the early morning sunlight hitting the gray tin of the rain spout in front of her house. The ringing of a telephone that sounds like Beethoven’s “Pastoral.” A letter scribbled on her office stationery that you carry around in your pocket because it smells of all the lilacs in Ohio.”
—Billy Wilder (b. 1906)
“His life itself passes deeper in nature than the studies of the naturalist penetrate; himself a subject for the naturalist. The latter raises the moss and bark gently with his knife in search of insects; the former lays open logs to their core with his axe, and moss and bark fly far and wide. He gets his living by barking trees. Such a man has some right to fish, and I love to see nature carried out in him.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)