By: Hank Yancey
Ask any of your co-workers, friends or relatives what’s the last good book they’ve read and watch as they struggle to come up with an answer. Seems like fewer and fewer people are reading books these days unless it is of the Eric Jerome Dickey variety or someone like him. I have noticed though that some people like books on CD, which is ok, but not the same. If one is listening while driving one cannot readily reach for the dictionary, re-read the same line or underline important passages. Recently, I read The Good Lord Bird by James McBride. This book was enjoyable, taxing and prompted several questions. Nothing taxes the brain like a good book. After all, reading is fundamental. Sometimes books end up raising more questions for me than they provide answers; such was the case here.
James McBride is a great American novelist, winner of the McArthur award. His works have been made into major motion pictures such as the 2008 Spike Lee joint Miracle at St. Anna. McBride’s latest work, the Good Lord Bird chronicles the life of the Caucasian abolitionist John Brown through the eyes of a young slave boy who passes as a girl. Although a fictional account this story gives one a realistic glimpse into the struggles encountered and risks taken in the name of freedom.
After reading this book one has no choice, but to recognize John Brown’s 1859 raid on the federal armory in Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia as one of the era’s pivotal moments in the history of American slavery. Brown was a man who tired of talk and demanded action. On more than one occasion Brown found himself trying to free slaves who had no desire to be freed. Sound familiar? The book reveals Brown as a deeply religious crusader whose faith propelled him to address slavery first in Kansas then in the south where slavery not only flourished, but became its primary source for generating revenue. Frederick Douglass once said of Brown: “His zeal in the cause of my race was far greater than mine.”
Brown’s attempt at insurrection was one of many in the 18th and 19th century, nearly all of which were quelled after the insurrectionists were betrayed by one of their own. The more things change the more they stay the same. This reality prompts three lingering, but all-important questions: a) Do people really want the freedoms that they have been historically denied? b) Would most people be content to let others fight their battles for them? and c) Why is it that so many people turn their backs on the struggle for racial equality when in fact they themselves have benefitted greatly from the life altering sacrifices made by those who preceded them?
The answers to these questions will hopefully give us some insight into how far we’ve come or the degree to which we have devolved.
While yet to enjoy the luxury of reading James McBride’s published literature, I was privy to viewing the poignant adaptation of his work via “The Miracle At St. Anna.” Thus, I look forward to including his latest publication: “The Good Lord Bird” onto my ever-expanding list of must read books – since John Brown owns a place in my Pantheon of Heroes!
As one of the few abolitionists in recorded history who willing took arms against an obvious crime against humanity, Mr. John Brown’s courageous actions were undermined by the abject state of ignorance of those whom the “She Moses,” Harriet Tubman relented in sadness: “I could have freed more of them if they only knew they were slaves!” Underscoring this crime against humanity, Booker T. Washington’s altruistic outreach to a newly emancipated ex-slave garnered this telling response: “There were five of us; myself and brother and three mules.”
The connection between the mindset of yesterday’s oppressed and the current mindset of those unwilling or incapable of deciphering the now sophisticated savagery being perpetuated upon us legislatively – grays single strands of my hair with each passing day! This is my response to the three introspective questions you’ve challenged us with. And sadly, for now, I’m also compelled to echo the haunting and recurring theme with-in these posts: “The more things change, the more they stay the same.”
RD