Summary

"The Good Lord Bird," published in 2013, is a historical novel written by James McBride. It is a first-person fictional account of the experiences of Henry Shackleford, a slave boy from Kansas Territory, as he travels across pre-Civil War America with fanatically religious abolitionist John Brown and his supporters. Through his journey, Henry witnesses momentous historic events, encounters historic figures, and must come to terms with what it means to become a man.

The novel begins with a Prologue, consisting of a fictional newspaper article from Wilmington, Delaware, headlined, "Rare Negro Papers Found." The article is dated June 14, 1966, and tells of a fire in a black church that revealed hidden fireproof box containing the hidden papers of a now-dead church deacon. Found with these papers were a written, lengthy series of interviews relating the account of another congregation member, Henry "the...