46 pages 1 hour read

The Good Lord Bird

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2013

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Character Analysis

Henry Shackleford (“Little Onion”)

Henry is a twelve-year old slave who lives with his father when the novel begins. Henry narrates the novel in first-person view from an undetermined point in the future. Because the author uses the viewpoint of a child to narrate real historical events such as the attack on Harper’s Ferry, he is able to highlight the confusion and hypocrisy of slave-era America.

Henry loses his father in the novel’s first few pages, and is taken by John Brown. Over the course of the story, he grows on Brown, and speaks of him with greater affection than he ever does about his father, although he classifies them each as lunatics and believers. His proximity to Christian zealots has made Henry suspicious of, and skeptical about, religion. It is only when his life is truly in danger during the rebellion that he prays in earnest.

Henry travels incognito as a girl for most of the novel. Indeed, most of the other characters never suspect he is a boy until he reveals it. His need to pose as a girl during the year when he is going through puberty and literally becoming a man raises questions about identity and what it is to be a man and to perform the duties of a man. Henry is never able to be himself because he is posing as another gender, illustrating that an authentic life is a freedom denied to colored people of the era. By the end of the novel, Henry is on his way to gaining freedom from slavery, but also from a false identity. 

John Brown

John Brown is a militant abolitionist and a religious zealot. He believes that his only purpose during his mortal life is to put an end to the evil institution of slavery. Brown is so sure of his cause that he cannot be reasoned out of it. He does not doubt himself when he is surrounded by twelve hundred troops at Harpers Ferry. The fact that he often charges into fights despite having far fewer troops demonstrates both his belief that God will protect him and that his life is worth sacrificing for the cause, if that is God’s will.

When Frederick Douglass refuses to help him with men for the upcoming fight, Brown is disappointed, but does not question his own decisions, despite Douglass’s insistence that his planning is wrong. Besides Henry’s father, Brown is the only character who appears to weigh all of his decisions against what he believes to be divine decree. Even when he is in jail awaiting execution, he maintains that he is the luckiest person alive, because he has fulfilled his purpose on earth and acted in accordance with God’s wishes. In this way, he is free of the existential and practical doubts that torment Henry and other characters. He interprets nearly everything he sees as a good omen, which provides him with a constant source of comfort.

Brown is kind to his men and his family, but he is also willing to kill anyone who threatens him or who tries to aggressively maintain slavery. He symbolizes the willingness to kill and die for an idea, and that when fighting for an idea, anyone’s life is worth sacrificing to achieve a victory. 

Frederick Douglass

Douglass is a former slave who raises himself up to become an eminent voice for the African American community during the slave era. He is a venerated historical figure, but is portrayed in the novel as petty, insecure, lustful, a drunk, and a lover of finery. Brown treats him as if he is a king, but Douglass treats his visit as a chance to fondle Henry and become severely intoxicated. He is aligned with Brown’s vision of an America without slavery, but disagrees about how it is to be achieved. He is seen by Henry as being less committed to the cause, because he is willing to fight through oratory, but not to place himself in harm’s way. This is unfair to Douglass, given that his experience as a slave has demonstrated his courage, and his ability to free himself and gain an education shows a tireless work ethic and tenacity.

McBride pays Douglass the appropriate respect for his achievements, but does not hesitate to show that Douglass was also a fallible man with typical weaknesses and appetites. McBride uses Douglass as a foil to Brown, in the same way that Martin Luther King was a foil to Malcolm X for similar social goals hundreds of years in the future.

John Brown’s Army

There is a great deal of turnover in Brown’s army, but the core characteristics of the men who fight with him remain the same. The men are courageous and committed abolitionists, who also have a taste for adventure and fighting. Those who are not committed are quickly weeded out and often desert Brown as soon as it is time to start fighting.

By the end of the novel, the balance of the men has shifted. Brown has started to gather a more educated group to himself. The men are still brave, committed, and aggressive, but they take on a more intellectual bent. They are more educated, rhetorically sound, and idealistic. Most importantly, they are all willing to die to put an end to slavery, and most of them do. 

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