46 pages • 1 hour read
The Good Lord Bird
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Summary and Study Guide
Overview
The Good Lord Bird is a 2013 novel written by James McBride. It is set during three years of the slave era South and is a work of progressive Americana in the vein of Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The Good Lord Bird received the National Book Award and great critical acclaim, and is now being adapted into a television series for Showtime. It examines themes of slavery, loyalty, racism, and violent protest.
Plot Summary
The Good Lord Bird is told in three parts. At the beginning of Part 1, a twelve-year old boy named Henry Shackleford is with his father when a renegade abolitionist named John Brown comes in to get a haircut. Brown is infamous by that point, and when he is recognized by other men in the saloon, a fight erupts. The gunfight involves Dutch Henry, Henry’s owner. Henry’s father is killed in the fight and Brown takes Henry with him. He mistakes Henry for a girl and quickly clothes him in a bonnet and dress. He calls Henry “Little Onion” after Henry eats an onion that Brown considers his good luck charm.
Over the course of the next three years, Henry spends most of his time with Brown’s ever-shifting army of abolitionists.
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By James McBride
