Review: THE GOOD LORD BIRD by James McBride
A Good Lord Bird is a creature so beautiful, it makes you stop and exclaim. A feather from such a bird was a good omen…
THE GOOD LORD BIRD by James McBride is the account of Henry “the Onion” Shackleford, a fictionalized character placed beside real heroes living in a dark period of American history. Henry is freed from bondage at the age of eleven by the white abolitionist John Brown. Pretty and on the edge of puberty, Henry is mistaken for girl. He dons a dress and joins Brown’s ragtag army as their Good Lord Bird, a good omen in their bloody battle to end slavery.
Henry, or Onion, meets many historical figures on Brown’s war path. Harriet Tubman’s appearance is brief but memorable. John Brown refers to her, in rare deference, as General. Onion describes their encounter, “Them eyes was staring down at me. I can’t say they was kind eyes. Rather they was tight as balled fists. Full. Firm. Stirred. The wind seemed to live in that woman’s face. Looking at her was like staring at a hurricane.” McBride can cut other giants down to a more human level. His version of Frederick Douglass is a skilled orator, who is also a pampered womanizer. John Brown himself is often portrayed as a bit daft and ridiculous in his constant preaching, but he is also pure in his mission to end the heinous institution of slavery at all costs.
At the final stage of battle, John Brown led his militia to a federal armory in Harper’s Ferry Virginia. He intended to overtake the armory, arm slaves, and start an insurrection that would spread south. The plan failed and Brown was taken alive. Onion escaped before the last stand and went into hiding on the Underground Railroad. His host, a good man, tried to console Onion as Brown sat on Death Row: “It had to end the way it did. Old John Brown knows what he’s doing. They should’a killed him. He’s raising more hell now writing letters and talking than he ever did with a gun.”
John Brown became the first citizen executed for treason in the history of the United States. As Onion states, “It set the table for the war that was to come.” His sacrifices, and those of many others, are told with the no-nonsense humor of a young man trying to survive and know himself. THE GOOD LORD BIRD was the 2013 National Book Award Winner, and its television adaptation has just received a 2021 Peabody Award.
A Good Lord Bird is a creature so beautiful, it makes you stop and exclaim. A feather from such a bird was a good omen…