While still married, after the Civil War, Newton took up with his grandfather’s former slave, Rachel, and they had five children together. He fathered 9 children with his white wife, Serena. The nature and extent of the Knight Company's opposition to the Confederate government is disputed among historians. Local legends tell of Knight and his men forming the 'Free State of Jones' in the area in and around Jones County, Mississippi, at the height of the war.

He was best known as the leader of the Knight Company, a band of Confederate army deserters who resisted the Confederacy during the Civil War. Newt was an American farmer, soldier and Southern Unionist in Mississippi, USA. Newt married about 1858 to Serina Turner and they moved to Jasper County, Mississippi, USA. However there is no proof or solid source for this story which has her as being from Tennessee and we know from other stories that she came from North Carolina (per census info and a former slave of Newton's grandfather). There are stories that Newton's mother's real name is Rebecca Griffith and that she was given the name Mason because she was either found by or brought to the family by Masons on a rainy night. In accordance with its teachings, Newton forswore alcohol, unlike his father and grandfather.

His son, Tom, wrote that Newton was morally opposed to the institution due to his Primitive Baptist beliefs.

However, Newton and his father, Albert, neither owned slaves nor inherited any. His grandfather John 'Jackie' Knight (1773–1861) was one of Jones County's largest slaveholders. Newton Knight was born on and his parents were Mason and Albert Knight (1799-1864).

Newton knight