‘The Good Lord Bird’ Episode 6 Preview: Will fictional Onion affect accurate portrayal of Harpers Ferry raid?
Episode 5 of ‘The Good Lord Bird’ saw Onion (Joshua Caleb Johnson) and a new recruit called John Cook (Rafael Casal) head to Harpers Ferry to prepare for the arrival of John Brown (Ethan Hawke) and his army. The episode also saw Onion struggle to perform his mission of recruiting more African-American soldiers from the area when Cook’s reckless behavior threatened their exposure to suspicious neighbors. After several weeks of waiting, Brown, his army, and his daughter Annie (Maya Hawke) finally arrived -- creating a new distraction for Onion: true love. But the end of the episode was crucial. Onion had forgotten to give the militia the password that would help them identify themselves to the railroad workers.
In episode 6, we will surely see the cost of that. A little bit of history: From October 16 to 18, 1859, Brown and his men, in an effort to initiate a slave revolt in the Southern states, tried taking over the United States arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. But Brown’s party, as we have seen all throughout the show, was a tiny one. Historical records vary but there were less than a couple of dozen men. Obviously, Brown’s men lost the battle, especially when confronted by Robert E. Lee’s force. And after that, Brown was tried and executed.
So, what else can we expect to see in episode 6? Titled ‘Jesus is Walkin’’, as per Showtime, in the episode the plan to take control of the nation’s largest armory at Harpers Ferry is finally put into action. However, a crucial mistake by Onion threatens the success of the entire operation. John Brown’s army takes hostages, grabbing the attention of an angry mob and local militia. With shots firing, Onion is sent out to get reinforcements.
‘The Good Lord Bird’, despite being biographical, takes plenty of creative liberties. The biggest example of that is Henry Shackleford or Onion being a fictional character. Though he’s an extremely good literary device for a story, providing a good narrative and showing Brown from a Black lens, this makes things a little complicated. Because we know Onion did not exist then, we can be sure that it wasn’t his error that led to the raid going down the way it did. Even if we don’t know as of yet how the show plans to portray the raid, we do know that the show is somewhat full of historical inaccuracies -- even if deliberate and well-executed.
For example, John Tecumseh ‘Ottawa’ Jones (Mo Brings Plenty), who can be seen as part of Brown’s crew since episode 1, was apparently not part of the raid on Harpers Ferry. This would contradict what the show depicts -- he too prepares to depart for the raid along with the others in episode 5. As per historical records, however, Jones was an ally of Brown’s. He was a prosperous and well-educated farmer who gave Free Stater forces material aid when Brown was in Kansas.
In the first episode, we saw Brown and his band participate in a home invasion and killing James Doyle, a pro-slavery settler. In reality, it was more gruesome than just the decapitation of one man. In what has come to be known as the Pottawatomie massacre, John Brown, his five sons, and three others killed five pro-slavery settlers in the middle of the night of May 24, 1856. In fact, as per historical records, Brown himself did not land the sword blows that killed four of the five men who died that night. He did, however, shoot James Doyle in the head.
This and other small instances of inaccuracies work for the show. So, it will be interesting to see how the actual raid plays out. 'The Good Lord Bird' airs on Sundays on Showtime at 9 pm ET/PT.