Free State of Jones (2016) quotes

Director
Gary Ross.

Cast
Matthew McConaughey.
Gugu Mbatha-Raw.
Mahershala Ali.

A disillusioned Confederate army deserter returns to Mississippi and leads a militia of fellow deserters and women in an uprising against the corrupt local Confederate government.

 

He died with honor.
– Will Sumrall
No, Will, he just died.
– Newton Knight

It ain’t just for us. Black, white, rich, poor, it’s for everybody.
– Newton Knight

From this day forward we declare the land north of Pascagoula Swamp, south of enterprise and east to the Pearl River to the Alabama border, to be a Free State of Jones. And as such we do hereby proclaim and affirm the following principles. Number one, no man ought to stay poor so another man can get rich. Number two, no man ought to tell another man what you got to live for or what he’s got to die for. Number three, what you put in the ground is yours to tend and harvest and there ain’t no man ought to be able to take that away from you. Number four, every man is a man. If you walk on two legs, you’re a man. It’s as simple as that.
– Newton Knight

These men are here to vote. They mind dying a whole lot less than you do.
– Newton Knight

I’m gonna die so they can get rich.
– Newton Knight
That’s why we left too.
– Moses

You know they shoot deserters, don’t you?
– Jasper Collins
Hell, they shoot everybody around here anyway. It don’t seem to make no difference where the bullet comes from.
– Newton Knight

No man ought to tell another man what he’s gotta live for or what he’s got to die for.
– Newton Knight

They’re poor farmers, deserters, who frankly, sir, don’t have much to lose.
– Colonel Robert Lowry

I don’t want my boy to get lynched. Or beat. I want him to go to a school. I don’t want him to drop his eyes every time a white man walk by. I don’t want him to be a “boy” no more once he turn into a man.
– Rachel

Deserted. How come?
– Moses
It ain’t my fight, you know? Don’t own no slaves. Ain’t gonna die so they can get rich selling cotton.
– Newton Knight
That’s why we left, too.
– Moses

I’m tired of it. You, me, all of it! We’re all out there dying so they can stay rich!
– Newton Knight

The winds are shifting and you can’t fight it this time.
– Rachel
There’s plenty left to fight for.
– Newton Knight