I believe it is a means to harvest the area of all timber, which can be beneficial for economic reasons and the ecosystem
Look on bbc bitesize and you can get all the answers you need
Newton Knight, a white Mississippi farmer, led armed opposition to the Confederacy during the U.S. Civil War, creating “The Free State of Jones,” a county that supported the Union in the war.
Website -https://www.biography.com/historical-figure/newton-knight
There’s a lot more on him on that website
