46 pages • 1 hour read
The Good Lord Bird
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Prologue Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Prologue Summary
Prologue Summary
The brief prologue contains the text of an A.P. article dated June 14, 1966, and concerns papers that were found after a fire in the basement of the First United Negro Baptist Church of the Abyssinia. The papers contained the story of Henry Shackleford, a former deacon at the church. The story was put together by a congregation member named Charles D. Higgins, who conducted interviews with Shackelford to get the facts. It also tells the story of someone, whom the reader later finds out is Shackleford, who witnessed John Brown’s failed raid on Harpers Ferry in 1859. It purports to be the only first-hand account by someone who was there. The proceeds of the valuable documents, if they sell, will be used to buy a new van for the church.
Prologue Analysis
The prologue shows that The Good Lord Bird, while fiction, will be grounded in historical events. Readers familiar with the story of John Brown will recognize Harpers Ferry and Brown’s aggressive abolitionism as historically authentic. The tone of the novel is also set by the prologue, which alleges that parishioners described Shackleford as something of a scoundrel, and a man who liked to tell stories.
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By James McBride
