“The
Good Lord Bird” The
book, by James McBride, 2013
This book
is an entertaining and funny read on John Brown’s anti-slavery actions from
1856 to 1859. McBride gives the Mark Twainish
treatment to this tragic and bloody affair.
It is one of the few recent ‘popular’ descriptions of Brown, which is
why it needs to be looked at carefully. It forms the basis for the somewhat worse streaming
series of the same name. The picture it mostly paints of Brown (which the series
dwells on more – see prior review of Episode 1 on this Blog) is that he was a
religious nut, a disorganized leader and an insane fool, but also a courageous
fool. He was ultimately right about
slavery and how to end it - no small point that.
The
African-American slaves in Kansas that Brown
runs into, as portrayed by McBride, seem to be mostly scared and ignorant,
though street-smart - which might be true or might not be. Certainly a slaveholder would be
entertained. Many of the pro-slave
border ‘ruffians’ from Missouri
are also ignorant thugs, so there is balance. The African-Americans are
fictional creations, including Bob and especially young Onion/Henrietta, who
Brown thinks is a girl but is really a boy, Henry. In the book and series Brown’s kidnapping of
Henry involves the death of Henry’s father, an event that never happened. But it sets the stage for portraying Brown as
a careless blood-letter.
KILLINGS
at POTTAWATOMIE and BATTLE
of BLACK JACK
The bloody Pottawatomie
Creek attacks carried out by Brown’s Rifles in the book lacks the real context
of the burning, sacking and destruction of the Free State
stronghold of Lawrence, Kansas on May 21,1856 by pro-slavers. In the book it is blamed on a more
trivial but bloody cane attack on Charles Sumner in the U.S. Congress by a
pro-slave state legislator that came on May 22, the next day. The attacks occurred on May 24-25 a few days
later as revenge, when Brown’s abolitionist group killed 5 pro-slave settlers
who participated in the Lawrence
raid. The book tells the story more
truthfully than the series. The book
shows the actual sword killings were done by Brown’s sons and fellow Free
Staters, not Brown, outside the cabins.
The Battle
of Black Jack on June 2 followed after Deputy Pate captured 2 of Brown’s sons
as a consequence of the Pottawatomie killings.
Brown’s 30 Rifles were the only force that fought Pate, not
the humorous and failed contribution of a contingent of organized soldiers
under Sam Shore as in the series. Unlike the series,
in the book Brown’s tactics were more on the guerilla side, not just a
straight-ahead charge across a ravine into gunfire. Not quite an idiot. The book does not show Brown praying right
before the battle, as does the series. The TV version shows Pate’s silly men
surrendering almost immediately because they were so scared of Brown - though
in reality the fight lasted 5 hours with Brown using some clever tactics. This
some consider the first battle of the Civil War – not Harper’s Ferry or Fort Sumter.
Black Jack is now a U.S.
historical park - though at the time Pate was a deputized Federal Marshall working
for the official pro-slavery government of Kansas, not a 'Red Shirt.'
Yeah… confusing but not really.
The Federals were supposed to keep the two sides apart.
This covers
the first 7 chapters of the book and they relate to the 1st episode of the
series. As can be seen, the book differs
in small but important ways from the series.
Brown in the book comes off as a lovable old coot, but also crazed and
bloodthirsty - though certainly not as bad as the more-watched series, at least
Episode 1.
 |
| Brown's cabin in Osowatomie - now preserved |
BATTLE of OSOWATOMIE
In the
series, this battle is ignored, showing just one scene of Brown's men escaping down a river. In the book Brown is defeated defending the
Free-State town of Osowatomie, Kansas, while his son Frederick is killed. Unlike the book, Frederick actually understood who the man that killed him was, a pro-slave Reverend. He did not
die as a soft-hearted half-wit praying over a dead bird as the book
pretends. The real battle took place
August 30 of the same year, long after Black Jack. 5 abolitionists were killed and their town
burned by a party of 250-400 pro-slavery border thugs using cannons. After this
defeat, the book has Brown deciding to leave his men. Osowatomie escalated the battle in ‘bleeding Kansas’ as the second
battle of the Civil War.
INTERLUDE
After the
battle McBride spends time on Onion’s travails and joys working in a
whore-house in Pikesville, Missouri after being grabbed by a
pro-slaver. There is more Twainish humor
at the expense of everyone, especially as Onion is one ugly high yaller ‘girl.’
At the same time Bob is forced to work at a sawmill in this crude slaver town. One pretty brown prostitute has no problems
with slavery and hates the rude black slaves in the slave pen who are later
accused of planning an insurrection. 9 slaves, led by a woman named Sibonia,
are hanged – something that never happened in Missouri. Not sure how ‘funny’ this event is! But hey, Onion
didn’t mind, as his tips increased due to the land-office business the hangings
brought in. He’s somewhat of a dumb-ass
at this point. Later, Free-Staters
attack Pikesville and Brown recaptures Onion. This is more fabrication, though Brown
actually did attack two households of slavers in Missouri to free their people, something he
did regularly around Kansas. The book doesn't show any of that.
HARPER’S
FERRY
In the
lead-up to the attack on Harper’s Ferry, the book treats Frederick Douglass as
a pampered blowhard, perhaps attempting to adjust the picture of Douglass in
most liberal movies as a revered sober hero. He’s a lecher, a drunk and a bigamist. However
Harriet Tubman, who we meet in Canada,
is not made fun of. In the series – but
not the book - Douglass pillories Brown for being a white man who thinks he
knows what slaves and freemen want. Why don't film-makers expose some of the present pampered and sell-out misleaders
of that old ‘black’ community, black and white.
Instead the identity sarcasm is reserved for John Brown.
As the book
gets closer to its tragic denouement, the humor and ‘romp’ subside. Onion is involved in the preparation, but
he’s half-useless and knows it. Onion
considers Brown crazy for the Harper’s Ferry plan, but it is not that crazy
in concept. It could have worked,
especially basing a guerilla struggle in the Appalachian Mountains,
which extended deep into the slave South.
Prior investigation among the local slaves and freedman was not done,
reflecting Brown’s ‘one man army’ approach, not a collective approach. Guerrilla attacks on smaller federal arms’
caches or plantations to collect guns and supporters would have been a better
method to start.
 |
| Kennedy Farm, where Harper's Ferry raid was organized. |
McBride
shows how small mistakes – the location of the base house at the Kennedy Farm,
the choice of a blowhard to visit Harper’s Ferry first – helped speed up the
timing. This significantly weakened the
attack on the arsenal. Ultimately Douglass
refuses to show up, Tubman is sick and the urban freedmen from Philly run the other way. This is mostly due to Brown’s changing of the
date because of imminent discovery by the local sheriff and his deputies. Timing is everything, especially this kind of
thing.
Before the raid, Onion
leaves with Brown’s daughters and a female in-law, heading towards Philadelphia in a wagon,
but turns back with a missing password. This mistake leads to death and confusion.
Brown easily takes the Federal Arsenal but waits for the
arrival of the freedmen or a rising of the slaves, which never comes. Instead of leaving with what he has and
getting into the mountains, he waits far too long. Starting his raid at 9 P.M. the night before, he is still there at 4 P.M. the next afternoon when a disorganized militia starts shooting and by 7 P.M. or so makes a final charge with the help of seasoned troops. The rest is history - all that is left is the hanging after this, the third battle of the Civil War.
At the end, Onion finally realizes Brown is no fool.
The Fundamental
UnSeriousness of the Middle Class
The falsity of most of the tone is the issue. You can't call this story a 'tragi-comedy.' It is perhaps a trick so that people read it, but then what do they walk away with? Remember, the NYT called it a ‘romp.’ Onion is
obviously a funny character telling things from an ex-slave's point of view, but he’s a plot device. He nearly always thinks Brown is mad and insane, and this
reflects the conventional reader and bourgeois political opinion. However to its credit the book continually
shows how ‘talking’ and acting are two different things. Those who talk but don’t act are found
wanting by Brown and the reader. This is
crucial and might remind us of a famous saying of Marx's.
I’m waiting
for a witty comedy by McBride about Che Guevara. Maybe he can make Guevara’s failed guerilla
expedition in Bolivia
somewhat laughable, featuring a clownish side-kick who thinks he’s nuts. Or how
about the union fools who struck Hormel in the 1980s and lost? Hey, even those desperate BLM protesters? Ha
ha! Twain never wrote a comedy about the Civil War for instance, because he
couldn’t. Huckleberry Finn had the
background of slavery, but Twain never portrayed real people or events. Roberto Beignini in Life is Beautiful
attempted to make a WWII concentration and death camp into a summer holiday for
his son. That didn’t quite work
either. In contrast, Trump, Biden and
the capitalist political system are open farces.
These are the real targets for a modern
Mark Twain.
Other prior
blog reviews on this subject, use blog search box, upper left: “The Good Lord Bird”(TV) “Fire on the
Mountain” (Bisson); “No Fascist USA!”
“The Free State
of Jones” “The Souls of Black Folk” (Dubois); “Struggle &
Progress” or type in the phrase “Civil War.”
And I
bought it at May Day Books!
Red Frog
December
30, 2020
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