The Good Lord Bird (2020) s01e01 Episode Script
Meet the Lord
Most folks never heard of John Brown.
If they have,
all they know is he was
hung for being a traitor
and stirring up all kinds of trouble,
and starting the Civil War.
Some Black folks love him,
'cause they think
trouble needed to be stirred.
But some Black folks hate him
for thinking he was some sort of
bullshit white savior.
Me? I knew him.
I loved the man.
The day he was hung
there was only one silver lining:
I could finally stop wearing that dress.
Hallelujah
I met the Old Man
two years earlier, in Bleeding, Kansas.
This was before I fell in love
with a prostitute,
got drunk with Frederick Douglass,
before we damn near
started the Civil War.
Least, that's how I remembers it.
My pa was a barber by trade
without full satisfaction.
So he preached the gospel
and offered hot shaves
and trims at Dutch Henry's Tavern.
Dutch's served as a post office,
way station, rumor mill
and gin house for the Missouri Red Shirts
who came across the Kansas
border to drink and throw cards
and holler to the moon about
niggers taking over the world
and the white man's constitutional rights
being throwed in the shitter.
Tell me, friend, are you a Bible man?
Well, boss, I surely is.
Know all kinds of Bible verses.
Ah, wonderful.
Tell me, which books
of the Bible do you favor?
Oh, I favors them all,
but mostly I like
Hezekiel.
Ahab, Trotter
and Pontiff the Emperor.
Now, I don't recollect that
I know those, and I've read
the Bible through and through.
Well, I-I don't knows them exact.
Whatever verses you know, stranger,
I-I'd be pleased to hear 'em.
Well, here's one for you.
"The Lord puts forth His hand
and touches all evil
and kills it."
Oh, that warms my soul. Give me more.
"Put a Christian in
the presence of sin and he will
- leap at its throat."
- Come on, stranger.
Yeah, "Free the slave
from the tyranny of sin."
- Preach it.
- "Scatter the sinners
as stubble so that the slave
shall forever be free."
Yes, sir. I feel
like I done meet the Lord.
You look familiar.
What's your name?
Shubel Morgan.
What you doing around these parts?
Just looking for work.
Well, I got some wood out back.
Needs chopping.
Give you 50 cents to chop, half a day.
- Mm, no thanks.
- Mm, 75 cents?
Nah.
- No.
- Mm-mm.
No, well, how about
a dollar, then? Dollar.
That's a lot of money.
I can't.
I am sharing the holy word
with a brother Christian.
Why don't you mind your marbles,
friend,
and saw your own wood?
Lest the Lord see you as a fat sow
and a laggard. Mm?
- Mm.
- Mm-hmm.
Only a white-livered,
tit-squeezing Yankee
would talk like that.
Get down off that chair.
Fetch the Bible.
I'm going to make you swear
on this Bible,
that you is for slavery
and the U.S. Constitution.
If you do that, you can walk
out of here none the worse.
If you is a lying,
blue-bellied free stater,
I'm gonna bust you across the
head so hard with this pistol,
yellow will come out of your ears.
Now
put your hand on that.
What is your name?
Shubel Isaac.
I thought you said your name
was Shubel Morgan.
- Isaac's me middle name.
- Mm-hmm.
- How many names you got?
- How many do I need?
Why, Dutch, that looks
like Old John Brown.
Shit, Dutch.
I believe that is John Brown.
- Is that true?
- Is what true?
Is you Old Man Brown?
Did I say that I was?
So you ain't him?
I am the child of my Maker.
Will you stop shitting around,
you goddamn potato head?
Old Man Brown. Is you him or not?
You bite your tongue
when you swear about our Maker,
lest by the power of His Holy Grace,
I be commanded to deliver
holy redemption on His behalf.
And that pistol you're holding
- won't be worth a cent.
- Cut the jitter
For the Lord will lift it
- Oh, Jesus Christ.
- out of your hand!
Cut the jitter!
Tell me your name, goddamn it!
Don't swear
- God's name again!
- I will swear
His cock-dragging name
whenever I goddamn please!
And then I will shove it down
your shit-eating Yankee throat,
you goddamn nigger turned inside out!
Oh, shit
Oh, son of a
Oh, shit
My name
is Osawatomie John Brown,
captain of the Pottawatomie Rifles,
and I am here with the Lord's blessing
to free
every colored person
in this territory, and any man
that stands against me will eat
lead grape and powder!
Lordy, Lordy.
I will take you and your
octoroon daughter to freedom
in the name of the King of Zion.
- Massa, my Henry ain't a
- Everybody in Dutch's
knowed I was a boy.
My name is Henry Shackleford.
But the Old Man heard Pa say,
"Henry ain't a" and took it
for "Henrietta."
Whatever he believed, he believed.
It didn't matter if it was true or not.
He was a real white man.
I will take you and y-your
Henrietta to safety.
But my child here ain't
We can discuss raising her
Oh
Go!
Oh, you nigger thief! You owe me $1,200!
Charge it to the Lord, heathen!
I reckon you're not
feeling very righteous
about what just transpired,
seeing as you lost
all the family you had,
and whatever family you may have left,
you're probably never gonna see again.
But I know that feeling well.
I know that feeling well.
I've lost many family.
I lost my first wife.
I lost my mother
when I was younger than you.
Come on, now.
I lost my father,
I lost Jesus, of course.
I had a pet squirrel
for 17 years and she died.
But I have a token for you.
A little gift to show my appreciation
and a gift for your freedom.
And as a welcome to the Lord's family.
Course, as you are a girl,
we're gonna have to get rid
of you as soon as possible.
That onion looked worse
than dry mule shit.
But being that he was white
and I was his prisoner
and hungry from the long ride,
I bit into the foulness
and it went down my gullet like a stone.
Mm, that's Father's good luck
charm you just swallowed.
I had that onion for 14 months
and nare a bullet nor a knife
scraped nor touched my flesh.
I reckon the Lord must mean
for you not to have it.
- I don't, I
- "Those who cling
to worthless objects turn away from God."
That's true. That's good.
That's-that's good, boys.
That's Proverbs.
Even a godly man like myself
has a pocketful of sins.
One of them freed ponies is lame.
Want to put her in the pot?
But you, my little onion-eating girl,
chewed up my sins like
Jesus Christ of Nazareth
devoured the sins of the world.
Let's call her Little Onion, then.
Yes.
Yes.
Let that be a lesson to me, boys.
Putting idle objects between me
and the great King of Kings!
Mmm.
I have more for you.
Take this.
Took this off a soldier,
and he'd want you to have it.
Take-take this,
that's my old journal. Uh
Where is it? Where'd it go?
Boys.
This is a feather of a Good Lord bird.
- Now, that's special.
- Yeah.
And it doesn't bother me,
giving you my special thing.
Owen, what's Isaiah say about that?
He says, um, uh
Isaiah says, "Look before you leap,
lest thou slip in shit."
It's all right to stretch the word
of the Lord sometimes,
but-but not too much,
else it becomes full-out devilment!
Yeah, despite you stretching it
something fierce.
Well, as gunfighters of the gospel,
we are allowed a few indulgences.
But we-we ought not
to take advantage. Here.
What's to be done with the pony?
What? Oh!
Did you hear that?
Oh, Great Haymaker
Pray with me.
What's your name?
- I call her Little Onion.
- Yeah, little girl's pa
got killed right in front
of her at Dutch Henry's.
Gah, I should've shot him!
- Yeah, you should've.
- Doesn't Proverbs also say
the wicked are swift to shed blood?
Is that Proverbs?
John, is that
Oh, no, no, no, no.
Uh uh no, I know.
I know, I know. Ellen's dress. Ellen.
I, uh my daughter Ellen
is turning 13, huh?
We-we had a dress, I'm sure
she'd want you to have it.
Pa, that-that's two dollars,
store-bought.
- Would you stop it?
- Mother's not gonna like that.
I am sure that she would love
for a pretty girl like you
to have her dress on the day
of your freedom.
- T-Thank you, massa.
- No
He's not a master to you, Onion.
Y-You're just as free as the birds fly.
You don't have to thank me,
you just thank God himself.
You go yonder.
Try on that dress. It's yours.
Frederick,
teach Little Onion here how to ride.
There's a war on.
And roust up some game
while you're at it.
We need something in that pot.
Energetic music
I near choked calling myself
a member of the opposite nature.
I love cottonwood trees.
But lying come natural to all
Negroes during slave time.
But no man or woman in bondage
ever prospered
stating their true thoughts to the boss.
Much of colored life was an act.
And the Negroes that did
what they was told and kept
their mouth shut lived the longest.
You did good.
Fact is, after a while,
the thought of going back to Dutch's
and being sold down the river
to New Orleans,
grew less sweet.
Have you bled yet?
- Onion?
- No.
There were certain
advantages to being a girl.
Like the fellas figuring
you're tired when you're not.
Not having to lift nothing heavy.
Not having to carry a pistol or a rifle.
And just a general niceness
in the way folks were to you.
Hold it.
I come to enjoy those days
in the Old Man's army.
Especially with Fred.
Let's throw him back in,
try to catch him again.
Why?
He was more child than man,
but as good a friend a fella
Or a girl could want.
You ever seen one of them?
That there is a Good Lord bird.
Now I can catch or trap
just about any kind
of bird there is, but
That-that one's an angel.
They-they say one feather
from a Good Lord bird
will bring you understanding that'll
last your whole life.
U-Understanding's what I lack,
Little Onion.
W-Where'd you get that?
Ain't allowed to say, but it's yours.
Any food?
John Brown's fearsome army
weren't nothing but a ragtag assortment
of the scrawniest,
saddest-looking individuals I ever saw.
Bushwhackers,
sticky-rope cattle rustlers,
an Indian and even a Jew.
You roust any provisions?
None to speak of.
Got a lot of these, though.
Owen? Owen?
I didn't know what
Reverend Martin did to make
those folks so scared of him,
but in five minutes I knew
he weren't no reverend.
Lord
we thank you for this bountiful meal
The Old Man was a plain terror
in the praying department.
They were always long-winded
and could easily last an hour.
Ask your blessing
on my boys, Salmon and Jason,
with their nocturnal struggles.
I know Jason's sap of manhood is rising.
Oh, Lord, be with my wife tonight.
Be with all our wives
Just when he seemed
to wrap up one thought
It's hard not to think of Jonah
- inside the whale
- another come tumbling out
and crashed up against the first.
Forgive the writers
of the Constitution
Pa! Testing the Good Lord's
patience is a sin!
Even He's got other prayers to hear!
Lord, I'm sure you are familiar
with the impatience of children.
Perhaps, you're even partial
to their recklessness
and youth, so we thank you
for your understanding.
In Jesus' name we pray.
- Amen.
- Amen.
Every time I ride
out of here, there's a new face
rooting around this camp.
Who's that there?
That there's Onion.
Well, where'd she come from?
Stolen from Dutch Henry hisself.
So, you mean to tell me out
of all the troublemakers
in this country, you went and
picked a fight with Dutch Henry?
I didn't pick a fight.
I was scouting.
Well, you just scouted trouble.
I wouldn't pick a fight with Dutch Henry
over a box of crackers.
Pottawatomie Rifles ride
for redemption, not crackers.
John, maybe you should tell
the good reverend what Jesus would say.
You don't have to teach me
the fucking Bible!
Dutch has got a mess
of Missouri Red Shirts
around his place and you just
gave him a good reason
to set them all loose.
That is Dutch's nigger,
bought and paid for!
And he will not forget
that kind of wrong.
Dutch Henry is my enemy,
as are all his consorts.
We ride east where the harlot
of slavery sleeps.
You fools want to ride against
Dutch, you go right ahead.
But nobody tells me which way to ride,
and especially over no nappy-headed,
bird-gobbling nigger!
You say another word about
my friend Onion here,
I will bust a charge in your chest!
- Frederick, Frederick
- Put it down.
Frederick! Put it down.
- Frederick?
- Fred,
- it's okay.
- Easy.
- Frederick?
- Freddy, easy.
It's okay.
- It's okay, son.
- Fred?
Easy. Easy.
You know what?
I think we're done here.
The Old Man made a big mistake
letting the reverend go that day.
It would cost him dear down the line.
Cost him a son.
The Old Man was furious with himself.
The more he considered my pa's death,
the more he felt he owed it
to me to kill old Dutch.
You see that house?
In that clearing there?
Our work is here.
From what I gathered,
the plan was to find Dutch's,
and have him meet his Maker
Old Testament style.
Who's there?
We're lost.
Looking for Dutch.
Keep going east, this ain't it.
We are the Pottawatomie Rifles!
Come here to free the enslaved people
of this territory under the
laws of our Redeemer, the Lord
Jesus Christ, who spilled
His blood for you and me.
Where's Dutch Henry?
Dutch Henry don't live here.
I know that. You related to him?
No, none of us here is.
Oh, are you for slavery
or are you against
the infernal institution?
Didn't I see you there at Dutch's place?
Dutch's place is down the road
a piece, don't you remember?
I don't recollect every
step that I take in performing
the duties that the Almighty asks of me.
But I do recollect
you being one of the ruffians
- that tried to blast me
- But I ain't Dutch!
Dutch's place is east of here.
And a heathen's haven it is.
I'm gonna ask you one more time.
Are you for slavery or against it?
You're not gonna find
one slave in this place.
Nare a one.
That's too bad.
It's a big homestead.
Must take a lot of work.
Where you from?
Fort Smith, Arkansas.
It's a long way from here.
They pay you to settle here?
Vote the way they say?
Hardly enough, but it's all right.
A good amount of land,
I vote twice a year.
For slavery?
Well, it's however they cast it.
Captain, you got to
understand my situation.
I got more plowing than me
and my boys could ever handle.
I'd be sure happy to have
a couple quality niggers around here.
I don't like that word.
That word's poison.
- What word?
- I have come
to deliver His Holy Redeemer's
justice, free His people
and exact
His revenge for the murder, rape
and kidnapping of the Negro by slavers,
those like yourself
All those involved!
There are no exceptions!
I'm just a farmer trying to
make a dollar change pockets.
Hey, I know you.
I'm talking now.
I will ask you
for a final time.
Are you for or against slavery?!
I'll say anything you want to hear!
Make up your mind.
I can't think straight
with that pig-sticker under my chin.
Owen!
I told you, Doyle! This is what you get
for running around with them
- damn Red Shirts.
- Hush, Mother!
- He's a good boy!
- "Take thine ax
and split your own hand with it."
Ecclesiastes 12 or
thereabouts.
What's that mean?!
No! Please! Please, no!
It means he's coming with me.
- No, please.
- John Jr.,
- this one's yours.
- Don't-don't touch me.
Time to do your part, boys.
- No, please, not him!
- Mama! No, don't take me!
- What are you doing?
- Don't take him!
Get your hand off of me!
It's just talk!
I didn't mean nothing by it! You know me!
Tell him I'm okay! Tell him I'm okay.
I never done you nor your daddy no wrong!
Captain, I'm just a man with a family
trying to make a living slinging
wheat and growing butter beans.
Is that what you said to Lew Shavers
and those two Yankee women
you ravaged in Lawrence?
Wait,
that wasn't me! Just those I knowed!
You were there.
Well, I was in Lawrence,
but it weren't me done them awful things.
- It was them others!
- Get down on your knees.
- No, no, no
- This isn't Dutch Henry.
He admits to consorting with slavers.
We don't know he's guilty of anything.
If someone came into our home
and stole one of your sisters,
two of your brothers, your mother,
your grandmother,
chained them, raped them,
forced them to work with no pay,
only enough food to keep them alive,
and I met that thief,
I would stab him
through his eye socket
the second I saw him.
I would kill his friends and anyone
who laughed at his jokes.
And it wouldn't be murder,
- it would be justice.
- God, please! No!
Is the Negro our brother?
Is Little Onion our sister?
If this man walked
into our home and stole your sister Anne,
would you kill?
- Yes, sir.
- In the eyes
of our Maker, is Onion here your sister?
Yes, sir.
Do we aim to start a war?
Yes, sir.
So I don't care
if this heathen's name is Dutch
or Jim
or Satan himself.
We are at war with slavery!
And just as Christ once armed Peter,
so the Lord, our God has put these swords
in our arms.
Gird your loins, Onion.
- This is for you, and your people.
- No, please don't.
Wake up, sleeper!
Arise from the dead
and Christ's light will shine on you!
I'd never seen a person
get they head chopped off.
Onion?!
Wish I never had.
Don't know why the Old Man
would say that's for me.
There weren't going to be another chance.
I jumped on the Old Man's pinto,
worked it as fast as it would go.
I run that pony so hard,
she threw me soon as she could.
Then I run myself past even
when my legs gived out.
Being colored and running alone
with no papers through Kansas
was about as safe as a rope
swing over a lake of fire.
So I ran.
When I was tired of running
I hid.
I left them all behind.
I was gone.
Whoa!
All right.
Easy, girl.
Fetch me a rope!
A piece on his leg ought to be good.
Damn it, Kelly, I told you
I ain't no free stater!
Well I got a paper here
that says you's a liar and a thief!
Signed by the judge.
Well, I don't care if it's signed
by Jesus H. Christ hisself.
I ain't scratching my name to nothing
till I know what it says!
All right then, go ahead and read it.
You read it then my
eyes ain't what they used to be!
Well, you ain't got
to follow it to the dot.
- Then you read it.
- Damn it,
Pardee, I'm trying to give you a break
so you can hang legal-like.
Now sign it!
You lying cockroach.
You just trying to jump my claim.
Is that true?
Course not!
He been aiming on my land
since we got here.
That is
All right.
All right!
I tell y'all what!
We'll let Nigger Bob read it.
How about that? All right?
And whatever he reads off,
that's what we gonna do,
you're gonna sign it.
- And we'll be done with you.
- Hell.
All right, read it, Bob.
Me and this mule and this wagon
belong to Mr. Charles Buckley Swain.
Ain't my job to do your reading for you.
What? Boy, if you was my nigger
If I was your nigger, I wouldn't
be your nigger for long.
Shh!
What the hell you think
you mean by that, huh?
I already in trouble.
You making me tote that
Y'all gonna hang me or not? I got chores.
Come on, Kelly.
We don't need trouble with Swain.
All right, I tell you what.
We'll vote on it.
How about that, all right?
All those in favor of hanging
Pardee, raise your hand.
I ain't sitting here watching you
fiddle your noodle one minute more.
- I ain't fiddlin' nothing
- John Brown
is in them woods!
And I aim to find him! Hyah!
Come on, boys,
we gonna hang them free staters!
Come on, boys, let's go!
We-we got legal right here!
We got precedent!
Come back here, boy! Come back here!
Goddamn!
Kelly. Kelly!
Come on, least you could do
is give me back my pistol.
I ought to kick your teeth in,
saying you could read
that land title we signed together.
Hold up, fellas!
Come on, wait up now!
Ah.
Drive me home.
Me, this mule,
this wagon belong to
Mr. Charles Buckley Swain.
Yeah, I live on the way
to Mr. Swain's place.
I ain't riding you nowhere.
Get down out that wagon.
If I gotta walk home,
then you gotta walk home, too,
you Black bastard.
I-I can help you fix that
if you take me up the road a piece.
What you doing out here, little girl?
It ain't what it looks like.
I'm just trying to get to Dutch Henry's.
I wouldn't ride to Dutch's for $20.
- They'll kill a nigger there.
- He won't bother you.
He's after Old John Brown.
What you know about John Brown?
He kidnapped me.
Made me wear this dress.
What would John Brown want
with you anyhow?
He need an extra girl
to work his kitchen?
I ain't a girl. Want me
to show you my privates?
Whoa!
I wouldn't want to see
your privates any more than
stick my face in Dutch Henry's Tavern.
What you got there, the cotter pin?
Let me see that.
If you're telling the truth,
was John Brown gonna run you north?
I don't know.
He's a murderer.
And Dutch ain't?
He's riding on Brown now.
He's got every Red Shirt in miles
roaming these plains looking for him.
You can't go back to Dutch nohow.
Why not?
You go back to Dutch Henry,
he'll sell your ass south
and get his money for you
while he can.
Any nigger that's had a sip of freedom
ain't worth squat to a white man.
A high yellow boy like you'd
fetch a good price in New Orleans.
If I help you find him, you
think he'd lead me to freedom?
He aims to free every colored
in this territory.
I heard him say it a hundred times.
I don't know nothin' about
no John Brown. Scatter.
Posses from here to Lawrence
say he knocked the heads off
ten white men
with a sword.
Any nigger mentions his name
get shipped out of here in pieces.
Now, you get away from me.
That's a hell of a way
to treat your third cousin.
- Fourth.
- Third cousin.
My Aunt Stella and your Uncle Beale
shared a second cousin, Melly.
Jamie's daughter.
Uncle Beale's nephew
- from his mom's sister Stella?
- Stella was
my cousin Melly's second cousin,
- making Stella your third.
- No, no.
That put my Uncle Jim back behind
my uncles Lucas and Fergus,
but before my uncles Lucas and Kurt.
Perzactly.
That makes Uncle Beale and
Aunt Stella first cousins,
which makes you and me third cousins.
So I'm asking, why you treatin'
your third cousin this way?
I don't give a damn if you was
Jesus Christ, and my son put together,
I don't know nothin' about no John Brown.
Especially in front of her.
She don't look like she
no kin to him at all.
I didn't say she was kin.
This here girl belong
to John Brown, and he's looking for her.
If I didn't know better,
I'd say she's kin to old Gus Shackleford,
whose flame got snuffed out
for talking to John Brown.
Now, Gus had a boy Henry.
Trifling little shit, lazy as hell.
Stop wastin' time!
You know where the Old Man is or not?
Well, Bob
A jar of peaches go far
this time of year.
I ain't got no peaches, Herbert.
I'll tell you this.
This here girl belong to John Brown,
and you pushing the waters back,
he's liable to ride down here and
put his broadsword on your neck.
Ride round the cabin, move
straight back into the woods.
You'll see a big tree.
You'll find an old whiskey bottle
stuck between the low
branches of that tree.
And make some noise when ya get close.
Old Man's got lookouts.
They'll pull the trigger
and tell the hammer to hurry.
Thank you, cousin.
Bob was the bravest coward I ever met.
But even he got second thoughts about
joining up with the Old Man.
Little brother, I got to cut you loose.
I'd like to go, but my hands
is starting to shake.
Old John Brown has chopped off
heads and eyeballs and all.
He ain't gonna be breathing much longer.
I got a wife and two boys
I hope to see again.
Wait. Can't I come with you?
You are a storm cloud coming.
I like you, Henry, but I don't
like nobody that much.
Where's Pa's horse?
The Old Man greeted me
like I'd just got back
from taking a piss.
Mmm. Welcome, Little Onion. You hungry?
He didn't care much for the details
of his volunteer army.
Men came and went as they pleased.
Weren't no taking attendance.
The abolitionist army was
a come one, come all outfit.
Captain, I got scared and run.
And I took your horse.
Well, you're not the only one
who got scared.
There's lots around here that are shy
about putting God's philosophy
into action.
Frederick?
- Hmm?
- What's Psalm 72?
Uh
You know this one.
Help him out, Owen.
"He shall defend the poor,
save the children of the needy
and break into pieces the oppressor."
Defend the poor, save the children.
That's all you need to know.
All right. Let's give our,
give thanks for this food.
Everyone, let's say a blessing here.
Dear Lord, we thank you
for this beautiful animal
Let me do the praying tonight, Pa.
All right.
O Lord, we give thanks.
- Now let's eat.
- Amen!
Amen.
- Captain.
- What is it?
I missed you, Little Onion.
Jason ran off, too.
Couldn't find him.
John Jr. went looking;
now he's gone, too.
Where you think they gone?
All right.
-Good news, boys.
My old enemy Captain Pate
has Jason and John.
All right? Got him on
the Santa Fe Trail with a posse.
They're headed to Leavenworth
for imprisonment.
Oh, that's the good news?
The good news is that
we're gonna stop them.
And how big's his army?
Somewhere between 50 and 200 men.
Hmm.
No, we're only outnumbered three to one,
or eight to one.
Well, you've always been
good at math. Thank you, son.
I say we ride all night and
surprise them in the morning.
Hmm? Let's pray. Come, come, come.
No, if we have to do it tonight,
let's do it and ride.
Why is it always just as
I'm about to get to the balance
of my thanks with my Savior,
I get interrupted by you?
Jason and John, they don't have time
for three hours of your praying.
We can pray while we ride.
We rode due north to meet Captain Pate
and his militia, of either 50 or 200.
I was full-blown back
in the Old Man's army
and in the business of being a girl
again.
But like most things
the Old Man planned out,
the attack against
Captain Pate's Sharpshooters
didn't work out the way he drawed it up.
We rode out middle summer and by the end,
we still hadn't found him.
George! We got some friends here.
This is Esther, Rose and Abraham.
Frederick, we have some friends here.
Let's make 'em feel welcome.
- I know that wagon.
- Thank you.
Frederick?
I got to go.
I see you still carrying on
the sissy show.
Thought you says you wasn't
gonna join the captain's army.
I come to live large like you.
So you gonna ride with us?
Not hardly. Captain said
he had but a few things to do,
and then we is riding to freedom.
He is riding against
Captain Pate's Sharpshooters.
Why would he do that?
Pate's got his sons John Jr. and Jason.
- When he's riding on Pate?
- The second he finds him.
Count me out of that.
There's 200 in Pate's army.
Pate's got so many Red Shirts,
you'd think he was selling
Calpurnia's flapjacks.
I thought Brown was working
the freedom train north.
Ain't that what you said?
- No. No, I didn't.
- Yes, you did.
What other surprises you got
round here? What's his plan?
I ain't gonna ask him
them kind of things.
You angling on freedom?
I'm learning to read the Bible
and work a pistol.
- Guess I kind of am free.
- Free to get shot.
I ain't come here to read no man's Bible
and fight somebody's slavery.
I aim to get out from under it myself.
My wife and children is still in bondage.
Why ain't you ask him when you joined up?
There weren't no asking.
He done pulled a pistol in massa's face.
Said, "I'm taking your wagon
and freeing your coloreds."
He didn't ask me if I wanted to be free.
Free and dead is not my plan.
I gone from the frying pan to the fire.
Whose horses are those?
The Old Man's always
got stolen horses around.
I wouldn't snatch a horse from them.
Ask him. He might give you one.
Shit, he ain't gonna live long,
child. He's crazy.
Calling the coloreds in the
wagon "mister" and so forth.
He does that all the time.
They will kill him for being so dumb.
He ain't in his right mind.
Bob had a point.
The Old Man weren't normal.
Do you have a fire in your heart
for justice?
All I'm saying,
if you steal from the Old Man,
I don't want to know about it.
Just be quiet about me,
and I'll be quiet about you
little girl.
He's got Jason and John!
He's got Jason and John in shackles!
Mount up to Black Jack!
Onward, Christians! Come on, Frederick!
We found them, boys!
We found them! Captain Pate!
He's got Jason and John in shackles!
In shackles, Salmon! Wake up!
Mount up, boys!
On to Black Jack!
- Help Little Onion get ready.
- Let's go!
Morning, Robert.
I see you're up early,
anxious to strike a blow
for your own freedom.
Sir, I-I got no knowledge
of how to use such things.
Oh, all right then.
This is what you need.
Aim high, strike hard.
It's the only knowledge
you need, Christian.
Onward! Glorious redemption!
Onion, wake up!
Proud of you, Bob.
As we drawed closer to Black Jack,
the Old Man's herd
thinned out like it did
almost every time
we had a real and true fight.
Come on, boys. Come on.
Oh
No talking. No talking.
That's Captain Pate, all right,
tucked in right smart in the tree line.
What's the plan?
Flank or nighttime attack?
I need to seek the counsel
of our personal Savior,
regarding approach.
No, you're right.
I'll talk to His Father.
Straight to the source.
Follow me, men.
Who them fellas?
A free state militia, bought
and paid for by the Secret Six.
Secret Six what?
A bunch of fat white men
back east, easing their minds.
No, they don't have the gumption
to fight for themselves.
I'm Captain William Shore
and these fine gentlemen
are my Shore Sharpshooters.
I will now command.
Where is your leader?
Oh, he's talking to the King of Kings.
I see.
And what, pray tell, is his plan?
Well, guessing, I'd say flank
or nighttime attack,
as Pate is hid pretty good
in that tree line.
Well, I intend to rout Pate and his men
and be home in time for supper.
Now, how do you figure that?
Well, I'm gonna hotfoot it
on down to that ravine yonder
and launch a full-frontal attack.
- A full-frontal attack?
- Exactly.
- Mm.
- The last thing he's expecting.
Do I have your support?
I'm waiting on Pa.
Pa says a man who don't consult with God
carves for himself
and cuts his own fingers.
Yeah. How wonderfully poetic.
Well,
while he's jawboning with Jesus,
we will commence our attack.
I'll see you on the other side
to help with the prisoners.
Port arms.
Follow me, men.
Move forward!
Frederick.
Have we received our
providential orders, Pa?
I have. Full-frontal assault.
Captain Pate!
This is Osawatomie John Brown,
here on behalf
of the emancipation
of all God's creation!
Stuff it, Brown!
Your salvation is in doubt
lest you surrender my sons!
Go to hell, you loon!
Go to hell!
You and your men are lying in the mud
with the harlot of slavery!
Eh, to hell with it.
Let's snake down to that ravine,
soften them up,
and then take them.
You take your men left,
I'll take mine right.
Robert, Onion, you
You stay here
and guard the horses. Let's go.
Now, yours truly was
happy to guard the horses.
But Captain Shore's attack
had gived away our positions.
And pretty soon, me and Bob
was in the hothouse.
I got halfway down the hill
when I realized
I had lost my mind.
And a child shall lead us!
Onion's here, boys!
There's a girl among us!
Thanks be to God
for inspiring us to glory!
You don't make time for God,
God will not make time for you.
All right. All right, boys!
They've wasted a lot of ammo.
They are nearly spent.
Follow me, walk slow, aim low,
make every fired shot count!
Goddamn it!
An hour later,
they were all out of bullets,
and the battle was over.
My name's Osawatomie John Brown
and I am here in the name of freedom!
I heard you the first time,
you blackhearted,
nigger-stealing son of a bitch.
Half them sorry asses turned tail
when they figured they was facing
the almighty John Brown.
Where are my boys Jason and John Jr.?
You ain't never gonna see
them boys again, John Brown.
They at Fort Leavenworth
under federal dragoons.
Then I will go there directly
and exchange you for them.
Damn, you ain't gonna kill me.
You mind telling my boys that
you ain't gonna boil their skull
and eat their eyeballs like
Tell them I'm not hungry yet.
Onion! A reading from our Lord!
Ecclesiastes. "The words of the Preacher,
the son of David, king of Jerusalem."
I should've just
aired you out in Osawatomie last year!
You had your chance.
You ain't never gonna
make it to Leavenworth!
This trail is crawling with Red Shirts.
Reverend Martin's Red Shirts
Oh, look here!
Here are the Federals!
You ain't gonna make it now!
Who goes there?
My name is Osawatomie John Brown.
Then you are under arrest
for violating the laws
of Kansas Territory.
We don't abide
by any bogus laws of Kansas Territory.
Well, then you will abide by this.
Owen? Isaiah 5:22.
"Though by dawn's early light,
the heathen souls were
eaten by ravenous goats."
I am charged
with liberating every Negro
in this territory.
Hmm. On whose authority?
The Lord of Lords!
The King of Kings! The Prince of Peace!
- Glory, Hallelujah!
- Amen.
I'm not here to debate
theological legalism, Mr. Brown.
Now if you tell your men
to lay down their arms,
there will be no trouble.
Does your work entail
the exchange of prisoners?
It does.
Well, we have 11 prisoners
here from Black Jack.
Now bringing them to, uh, Fort
Leavenworth for your justice.
All I want is my boys. Nothing more.
I say 11 for two is a fair deal.
I'll turn myself over, without a fight
or unkind word.
Oh, but if you don't,
then my brothers here
will aim for your heart.
And yours alone.
And while we may lose the fight,
of your death we can be certain.
Names of the prisoners?
Jason and John Brown Jr.
We just came here to settle.
We lost everything. Our farm, crops,
animals.
Burned by these men right here.
These rabble!
- Is this true?
- We did burn
these nigger-stealers' crops.
Twice.
And I will again, if we get the chance.
You, sir, have an ugly disposition.
Now
If I transport your prisoners
to Leavenworth,
can I trust you to stay here?
What's your name, son?
Lieutenant Jeb Stuart.
Frederick, would you fetch Mama's Bible
- for the lieutenant?
- Yes, sir.
Lieutenant, tell anyone
who wants to listen
that I will be right here
for the next three days,
waiting for my sons.
And if they're not here, unharmed,
I'll burn this territory to the ground.
And upon their return,
you will surrender yourself?
I
John Brown,
hereby swear to wait three days
while you fetch my boys,
at which time, I will hand
myself over to the Almighty,
by the hand of God.
John Brown always said,
"Be mild with the mild,
shrewd with the crafty,
rough to the ruffian.
With a liar?
Be a thunderbolt."
What that meant was,
you can lie your ass off to anyone
who doesn't believe all people's equal.
He waited for that poor Jeb Stuart
and bushwhacked the Federals,
and got the Brown family back together.
Slow music
Oh.
Oh, no.
Oh, we
Don't touch it.
It's a Good Lord bird.
Oh
L-Let's get the bird
and give it to your pa when we see him.
He'll know what to do.
He'll fix the whole thing up righteously.
Hide. Hide.
Evening, Reverend.
Mr. Peabody.
That'll teach you to draw on me,
you stupid nigger-loving bastard.
We got us a Brown boy.
The biggest one.
You ain't got to shoot him
cold-blooded like that!
What kind of a reverend is you, anyway?
You rode with that boy!
Listen, he was a free stater
and a Brown.
Goddamn it!
I don't give a fiddler's fart
if he was George Washington.
He did not draw on you, and
now he's deader than a turnip.
Listen, Brown won't tarry
when he finds his boy dead out here.
You want to wait for him?
You's a muggins.
Let's ride.
Come on.
I'm gonna end up dead with two inside me.
Goddamn it, let's go. Son of a bitch.
Wake up.
Wake up. They gone now.
Frederick, wake up.
Wake up. Wake up!
Frederick.
Oh, Frederick.
I was learning quick.
Slavery was a poisonous snake.
Give my hellos to my pa.
Everybody knew that.
But freedom,
the kind that was being
offered, with no home,
no food, and not a friend in the world?
That snake was just as poisonous.
One snake pointed north.
One snake pointed south.
And they both bit the nigger.
You were a friend to Frederick.
He was fond of you.
And for that, I'll always be grateful.
Father,
let's bury Frederick and let
the Federals have the fight.
They'll be here soon, and
I don't want to fight anymore.
None of us do.
We've done enough for the cause.
Well
This is beautiful country.
Frederick has left us a wonderful omen.
Please.
Stay with us.
I have only a short time left to live,
and I plan on dying
fighting for this cause.
America will never have peace
until we've dealt with slavery.
So I plan
on sending a message to the slavers.
I'll take this fight
all the way to Africa, if need be.
And I hope someday
you'll be lucky enough
to have a cause worth dying for.
As misguided though they are,
even the slavers have that.
You're brave boys. No, you're brave men.
All of you. I'm proud of you.
Proud of you all.
Are you going to kill the reverend?
No.
We don't ride for revenge.
We ride for justice.
I'm gonna go pray,
comingle with our Great Father,
upon whose blood we live.
You bury Frederick right.
You hear me, boys?
Yes, sir.
And you watch after Little Onion.
Mm. Robert?
Would you like to ride with me?
All right. Well
It's been an honor
serving in the great fight with you boys.
Come on. Hey.
And with that
he was gone.
I wouldn't see him again
for a very long time.
If they have,
all they know is he was
hung for being a traitor
and stirring up all kinds of trouble,
and starting the Civil War.
Some Black folks love him,
'cause they think
trouble needed to be stirred.
But some Black folks hate him
for thinking he was some sort of
bullshit white savior.
Me? I knew him.
I loved the man.
The day he was hung
there was only one silver lining:
I could finally stop wearing that dress.
Hallelujah
I met the Old Man
two years earlier, in Bleeding, Kansas.
This was before I fell in love
with a prostitute,
got drunk with Frederick Douglass,
before we damn near
started the Civil War.
Least, that's how I remembers it.
My pa was a barber by trade
without full satisfaction.
So he preached the gospel
and offered hot shaves
and trims at Dutch Henry's Tavern.
Dutch's served as a post office,
way station, rumor mill
and gin house for the Missouri Red Shirts
who came across the Kansas
border to drink and throw cards
and holler to the moon about
niggers taking over the world
and the white man's constitutional rights
being throwed in the shitter.
Tell me, friend, are you a Bible man?
Well, boss, I surely is.
Know all kinds of Bible verses.
Ah, wonderful.
Tell me, which books
of the Bible do you favor?
Oh, I favors them all,
but mostly I like
Hezekiel.
Ahab, Trotter
and Pontiff the Emperor.
Now, I don't recollect that
I know those, and I've read
the Bible through and through.
Well, I-I don't knows them exact.
Whatever verses you know, stranger,
I-I'd be pleased to hear 'em.
Well, here's one for you.
"The Lord puts forth His hand
and touches all evil
and kills it."
Oh, that warms my soul. Give me more.
"Put a Christian in
the presence of sin and he will
- leap at its throat."
- Come on, stranger.
Yeah, "Free the slave
from the tyranny of sin."
- Preach it.
- "Scatter the sinners
as stubble so that the slave
shall forever be free."
Yes, sir. I feel
like I done meet the Lord.
You look familiar.
What's your name?
Shubel Morgan.
What you doing around these parts?
Just looking for work.
Well, I got some wood out back.
Needs chopping.
Give you 50 cents to chop, half a day.
- Mm, no thanks.
- Mm, 75 cents?
Nah.
- No.
- Mm-mm.
No, well, how about
a dollar, then? Dollar.
That's a lot of money.
I can't.
I am sharing the holy word
with a brother Christian.
Why don't you mind your marbles,
friend,
and saw your own wood?
Lest the Lord see you as a fat sow
and a laggard. Mm?
- Mm.
- Mm-hmm.
Only a white-livered,
tit-squeezing Yankee
would talk like that.
Get down off that chair.
Fetch the Bible.
I'm going to make you swear
on this Bible,
that you is for slavery
and the U.S. Constitution.
If you do that, you can walk
out of here none the worse.
If you is a lying,
blue-bellied free stater,
I'm gonna bust you across the
head so hard with this pistol,
yellow will come out of your ears.
Now
put your hand on that.
What is your name?
Shubel Isaac.
I thought you said your name
was Shubel Morgan.
- Isaac's me middle name.
- Mm-hmm.
- How many names you got?
- How many do I need?
Why, Dutch, that looks
like Old John Brown.
Shit, Dutch.
I believe that is John Brown.
- Is that true?
- Is what true?
Is you Old Man Brown?
Did I say that I was?
So you ain't him?
I am the child of my Maker.
Will you stop shitting around,
you goddamn potato head?
Old Man Brown. Is you him or not?
You bite your tongue
when you swear about our Maker,
lest by the power of His Holy Grace,
I be commanded to deliver
holy redemption on His behalf.
And that pistol you're holding
- won't be worth a cent.
- Cut the jitter
For the Lord will lift it
- Oh, Jesus Christ.
- out of your hand!
Cut the jitter!
Tell me your name, goddamn it!
Don't swear
- God's name again!
- I will swear
His cock-dragging name
whenever I goddamn please!
And then I will shove it down
your shit-eating Yankee throat,
you goddamn nigger turned inside out!
Oh, shit
Oh, son of a
Oh, shit
My name
is Osawatomie John Brown,
captain of the Pottawatomie Rifles,
and I am here with the Lord's blessing
to free
every colored person
in this territory, and any man
that stands against me will eat
lead grape and powder!
Lordy, Lordy.
I will take you and your
octoroon daughter to freedom
in the name of the King of Zion.
- Massa, my Henry ain't a
- Everybody in Dutch's
knowed I was a boy.
My name is Henry Shackleford.
But the Old Man heard Pa say,
"Henry ain't a" and took it
for "Henrietta."
Whatever he believed, he believed.
It didn't matter if it was true or not.
He was a real white man.
I will take you and y-your
Henrietta to safety.
But my child here ain't
We can discuss raising her
Oh
Go!
Oh, you nigger thief! You owe me $1,200!
Charge it to the Lord, heathen!
I reckon you're not
feeling very righteous
about what just transpired,
seeing as you lost
all the family you had,
and whatever family you may have left,
you're probably never gonna see again.
But I know that feeling well.
I know that feeling well.
I've lost many family.
I lost my first wife.
I lost my mother
when I was younger than you.
Come on, now.
I lost my father,
I lost Jesus, of course.
I had a pet squirrel
for 17 years and she died.
But I have a token for you.
A little gift to show my appreciation
and a gift for your freedom.
And as a welcome to the Lord's family.
Course, as you are a girl,
we're gonna have to get rid
of you as soon as possible.
That onion looked worse
than dry mule shit.
But being that he was white
and I was his prisoner
and hungry from the long ride,
I bit into the foulness
and it went down my gullet like a stone.
Mm, that's Father's good luck
charm you just swallowed.
I had that onion for 14 months
and nare a bullet nor a knife
scraped nor touched my flesh.
I reckon the Lord must mean
for you not to have it.
- I don't, I
- "Those who cling
to worthless objects turn away from God."
That's true. That's good.
That's-that's good, boys.
That's Proverbs.
Even a godly man like myself
has a pocketful of sins.
One of them freed ponies is lame.
Want to put her in the pot?
But you, my little onion-eating girl,
chewed up my sins like
Jesus Christ of Nazareth
devoured the sins of the world.
Let's call her Little Onion, then.
Yes.
Yes.
Let that be a lesson to me, boys.
Putting idle objects between me
and the great King of Kings!
Mmm.
I have more for you.
Take this.
Took this off a soldier,
and he'd want you to have it.
Take-take this,
that's my old journal. Uh
Where is it? Where'd it go?
Boys.
This is a feather of a Good Lord bird.
- Now, that's special.
- Yeah.
And it doesn't bother me,
giving you my special thing.
Owen, what's Isaiah say about that?
He says, um, uh
Isaiah says, "Look before you leap,
lest thou slip in shit."
It's all right to stretch the word
of the Lord sometimes,
but-but not too much,
else it becomes full-out devilment!
Yeah, despite you stretching it
something fierce.
Well, as gunfighters of the gospel,
we are allowed a few indulgences.
But we-we ought not
to take advantage. Here.
What's to be done with the pony?
What? Oh!
Did you hear that?
Oh, Great Haymaker
Pray with me.
What's your name?
- I call her Little Onion.
- Yeah, little girl's pa
got killed right in front
of her at Dutch Henry's.
Gah, I should've shot him!
- Yeah, you should've.
- Doesn't Proverbs also say
the wicked are swift to shed blood?
Is that Proverbs?
John, is that
Oh, no, no, no, no.
Uh uh no, I know.
I know, I know. Ellen's dress. Ellen.
I, uh my daughter Ellen
is turning 13, huh?
We-we had a dress, I'm sure
she'd want you to have it.
Pa, that-that's two dollars,
store-bought.
- Would you stop it?
- Mother's not gonna like that.
I am sure that she would love
for a pretty girl like you
to have her dress on the day
of your freedom.
- T-Thank you, massa.
- No
He's not a master to you, Onion.
Y-You're just as free as the birds fly.
You don't have to thank me,
you just thank God himself.
You go yonder.
Try on that dress. It's yours.
Frederick,
teach Little Onion here how to ride.
There's a war on.
And roust up some game
while you're at it.
We need something in that pot.
Energetic music
I near choked calling myself
a member of the opposite nature.
I love cottonwood trees.
But lying come natural to all
Negroes during slave time.
But no man or woman in bondage
ever prospered
stating their true thoughts to the boss.
Much of colored life was an act.
And the Negroes that did
what they was told and kept
their mouth shut lived the longest.
You did good.
Fact is, after a while,
the thought of going back to Dutch's
and being sold down the river
to New Orleans,
grew less sweet.
Have you bled yet?
- Onion?
- No.
There were certain
advantages to being a girl.
Like the fellas figuring
you're tired when you're not.
Not having to lift nothing heavy.
Not having to carry a pistol or a rifle.
And just a general niceness
in the way folks were to you.
Hold it.
I come to enjoy those days
in the Old Man's army.
Especially with Fred.
Let's throw him back in,
try to catch him again.
Why?
He was more child than man,
but as good a friend a fella
Or a girl could want.
You ever seen one of them?
That there is a Good Lord bird.
Now I can catch or trap
just about any kind
of bird there is, but
That-that one's an angel.
They-they say one feather
from a Good Lord bird
will bring you understanding that'll
last your whole life.
U-Understanding's what I lack,
Little Onion.
W-Where'd you get that?
Ain't allowed to say, but it's yours.
Any food?
John Brown's fearsome army
weren't nothing but a ragtag assortment
of the scrawniest,
saddest-looking individuals I ever saw.
Bushwhackers,
sticky-rope cattle rustlers,
an Indian and even a Jew.
You roust any provisions?
None to speak of.
Got a lot of these, though.
Owen? Owen?
I didn't know what
Reverend Martin did to make
those folks so scared of him,
but in five minutes I knew
he weren't no reverend.
Lord
we thank you for this bountiful meal
The Old Man was a plain terror
in the praying department.
They were always long-winded
and could easily last an hour.
Ask your blessing
on my boys, Salmon and Jason,
with their nocturnal struggles.
I know Jason's sap of manhood is rising.
Oh, Lord, be with my wife tonight.
Be with all our wives
Just when he seemed
to wrap up one thought
It's hard not to think of Jonah
- inside the whale
- another come tumbling out
and crashed up against the first.
Forgive the writers
of the Constitution
Pa! Testing the Good Lord's
patience is a sin!
Even He's got other prayers to hear!
Lord, I'm sure you are familiar
with the impatience of children.
Perhaps, you're even partial
to their recklessness
and youth, so we thank you
for your understanding.
In Jesus' name we pray.
- Amen.
- Amen.
Every time I ride
out of here, there's a new face
rooting around this camp.
Who's that there?
That there's Onion.
Well, where'd she come from?
Stolen from Dutch Henry hisself.
So, you mean to tell me out
of all the troublemakers
in this country, you went and
picked a fight with Dutch Henry?
I didn't pick a fight.
I was scouting.
Well, you just scouted trouble.
I wouldn't pick a fight with Dutch Henry
over a box of crackers.
Pottawatomie Rifles ride
for redemption, not crackers.
John, maybe you should tell
the good reverend what Jesus would say.
You don't have to teach me
the fucking Bible!
Dutch has got a mess
of Missouri Red Shirts
around his place and you just
gave him a good reason
to set them all loose.
That is Dutch's nigger,
bought and paid for!
And he will not forget
that kind of wrong.
Dutch Henry is my enemy,
as are all his consorts.
We ride east where the harlot
of slavery sleeps.
You fools want to ride against
Dutch, you go right ahead.
But nobody tells me which way to ride,
and especially over no nappy-headed,
bird-gobbling nigger!
You say another word about
my friend Onion here,
I will bust a charge in your chest!
- Frederick, Frederick
- Put it down.
Frederick! Put it down.
- Frederick?
- Fred,
- it's okay.
- Easy.
- Frederick?
- Freddy, easy.
It's okay.
- It's okay, son.
- Fred?
Easy. Easy.
You know what?
I think we're done here.
The Old Man made a big mistake
letting the reverend go that day.
It would cost him dear down the line.
Cost him a son.
The Old Man was furious with himself.
The more he considered my pa's death,
the more he felt he owed it
to me to kill old Dutch.
You see that house?
In that clearing there?
Our work is here.
From what I gathered,
the plan was to find Dutch's,
and have him meet his Maker
Old Testament style.
Who's there?
We're lost.
Looking for Dutch.
Keep going east, this ain't it.
We are the Pottawatomie Rifles!
Come here to free the enslaved people
of this territory under the
laws of our Redeemer, the Lord
Jesus Christ, who spilled
His blood for you and me.
Where's Dutch Henry?
Dutch Henry don't live here.
I know that. You related to him?
No, none of us here is.
Oh, are you for slavery
or are you against
the infernal institution?
Didn't I see you there at Dutch's place?
Dutch's place is down the road
a piece, don't you remember?
I don't recollect every
step that I take in performing
the duties that the Almighty asks of me.
But I do recollect
you being one of the ruffians
- that tried to blast me
- But I ain't Dutch!
Dutch's place is east of here.
And a heathen's haven it is.
I'm gonna ask you one more time.
Are you for slavery or against it?
You're not gonna find
one slave in this place.
Nare a one.
That's too bad.
It's a big homestead.
Must take a lot of work.
Where you from?
Fort Smith, Arkansas.
It's a long way from here.
They pay you to settle here?
Vote the way they say?
Hardly enough, but it's all right.
A good amount of land,
I vote twice a year.
For slavery?
Well, it's however they cast it.
Captain, you got to
understand my situation.
I got more plowing than me
and my boys could ever handle.
I'd be sure happy to have
a couple quality niggers around here.
I don't like that word.
That word's poison.
- What word?
- I have come
to deliver His Holy Redeemer's
justice, free His people
and exact
His revenge for the murder, rape
and kidnapping of the Negro by slavers,
those like yourself
All those involved!
There are no exceptions!
I'm just a farmer trying to
make a dollar change pockets.
Hey, I know you.
I'm talking now.
I will ask you
for a final time.
Are you for or against slavery?!
I'll say anything you want to hear!
Make up your mind.
I can't think straight
with that pig-sticker under my chin.
Owen!
I told you, Doyle! This is what you get
for running around with them
- damn Red Shirts.
- Hush, Mother!
- He's a good boy!
- "Take thine ax
and split your own hand with it."
Ecclesiastes 12 or
thereabouts.
What's that mean?!
No! Please! Please, no!
It means he's coming with me.
- No, please.
- John Jr.,
- this one's yours.
- Don't-don't touch me.
Time to do your part, boys.
- No, please, not him!
- Mama! No, don't take me!
- What are you doing?
- Don't take him!
Get your hand off of me!
It's just talk!
I didn't mean nothing by it! You know me!
Tell him I'm okay! Tell him I'm okay.
I never done you nor your daddy no wrong!
Captain, I'm just a man with a family
trying to make a living slinging
wheat and growing butter beans.
Is that what you said to Lew Shavers
and those two Yankee women
you ravaged in Lawrence?
Wait,
that wasn't me! Just those I knowed!
You were there.
Well, I was in Lawrence,
but it weren't me done them awful things.
- It was them others!
- Get down on your knees.
- No, no, no
- This isn't Dutch Henry.
He admits to consorting with slavers.
We don't know he's guilty of anything.
If someone came into our home
and stole one of your sisters,
two of your brothers, your mother,
your grandmother,
chained them, raped them,
forced them to work with no pay,
only enough food to keep them alive,
and I met that thief,
I would stab him
through his eye socket
the second I saw him.
I would kill his friends and anyone
who laughed at his jokes.
And it wouldn't be murder,
- it would be justice.
- God, please! No!
Is the Negro our brother?
Is Little Onion our sister?
If this man walked
into our home and stole your sister Anne,
would you kill?
- Yes, sir.
- In the eyes
of our Maker, is Onion here your sister?
Yes, sir.
Do we aim to start a war?
Yes, sir.
So I don't care
if this heathen's name is Dutch
or Jim
or Satan himself.
We are at war with slavery!
And just as Christ once armed Peter,
so the Lord, our God has put these swords
in our arms.
Gird your loins, Onion.
- This is for you, and your people.
- No, please don't.
Wake up, sleeper!
Arise from the dead
and Christ's light will shine on you!
I'd never seen a person
get they head chopped off.
Onion?!
Wish I never had.
Don't know why the Old Man
would say that's for me.
There weren't going to be another chance.
I jumped on the Old Man's pinto,
worked it as fast as it would go.
I run that pony so hard,
she threw me soon as she could.
Then I run myself past even
when my legs gived out.
Being colored and running alone
with no papers through Kansas
was about as safe as a rope
swing over a lake of fire.
So I ran.
When I was tired of running
I hid.
I left them all behind.
I was gone.
Whoa!
All right.
Easy, girl.
Fetch me a rope!
A piece on his leg ought to be good.
Damn it, Kelly, I told you
I ain't no free stater!
Well I got a paper here
that says you's a liar and a thief!
Signed by the judge.
Well, I don't care if it's signed
by Jesus H. Christ hisself.
I ain't scratching my name to nothing
till I know what it says!
All right then, go ahead and read it.
You read it then my
eyes ain't what they used to be!
Well, you ain't got
to follow it to the dot.
- Then you read it.
- Damn it,
Pardee, I'm trying to give you a break
so you can hang legal-like.
Now sign it!
You lying cockroach.
You just trying to jump my claim.
Is that true?
Course not!
He been aiming on my land
since we got here.
That is
All right.
All right!
I tell y'all what!
We'll let Nigger Bob read it.
How about that? All right?
And whatever he reads off,
that's what we gonna do,
you're gonna sign it.
- And we'll be done with you.
- Hell.
All right, read it, Bob.
Me and this mule and this wagon
belong to Mr. Charles Buckley Swain.
Ain't my job to do your reading for you.
What? Boy, if you was my nigger
If I was your nigger, I wouldn't
be your nigger for long.
Shh!
What the hell you think
you mean by that, huh?
I already in trouble.
You making me tote that
Y'all gonna hang me or not? I got chores.
Come on, Kelly.
We don't need trouble with Swain.
All right, I tell you what.
We'll vote on it.
How about that, all right?
All those in favor of hanging
Pardee, raise your hand.
I ain't sitting here watching you
fiddle your noodle one minute more.
- I ain't fiddlin' nothing
- John Brown
is in them woods!
And I aim to find him! Hyah!
Come on, boys,
we gonna hang them free staters!
Come on, boys, let's go!
We-we got legal right here!
We got precedent!
Come back here, boy! Come back here!
Goddamn!
Kelly. Kelly!
Come on, least you could do
is give me back my pistol.
I ought to kick your teeth in,
saying you could read
that land title we signed together.
Hold up, fellas!
Come on, wait up now!
Ah.
Drive me home.
Me, this mule,
this wagon belong to
Mr. Charles Buckley Swain.
Yeah, I live on the way
to Mr. Swain's place.
I ain't riding you nowhere.
Get down out that wagon.
If I gotta walk home,
then you gotta walk home, too,
you Black bastard.
I-I can help you fix that
if you take me up the road a piece.
What you doing out here, little girl?
It ain't what it looks like.
I'm just trying to get to Dutch Henry's.
I wouldn't ride to Dutch's for $20.
- They'll kill a nigger there.
- He won't bother you.
He's after Old John Brown.
What you know about John Brown?
He kidnapped me.
Made me wear this dress.
What would John Brown want
with you anyhow?
He need an extra girl
to work his kitchen?
I ain't a girl. Want me
to show you my privates?
Whoa!
I wouldn't want to see
your privates any more than
stick my face in Dutch Henry's Tavern.
What you got there, the cotter pin?
Let me see that.
If you're telling the truth,
was John Brown gonna run you north?
I don't know.
He's a murderer.
And Dutch ain't?
He's riding on Brown now.
He's got every Red Shirt in miles
roaming these plains looking for him.
You can't go back to Dutch nohow.
Why not?
You go back to Dutch Henry,
he'll sell your ass south
and get his money for you
while he can.
Any nigger that's had a sip of freedom
ain't worth squat to a white man.
A high yellow boy like you'd
fetch a good price in New Orleans.
If I help you find him, you
think he'd lead me to freedom?
He aims to free every colored
in this territory.
I heard him say it a hundred times.
I don't know nothin' about
no John Brown. Scatter.
Posses from here to Lawrence
say he knocked the heads off
ten white men
with a sword.
Any nigger mentions his name
get shipped out of here in pieces.
Now, you get away from me.
That's a hell of a way
to treat your third cousin.
- Fourth.
- Third cousin.
My Aunt Stella and your Uncle Beale
shared a second cousin, Melly.
Jamie's daughter.
Uncle Beale's nephew
- from his mom's sister Stella?
- Stella was
my cousin Melly's second cousin,
- making Stella your third.
- No, no.
That put my Uncle Jim back behind
my uncles Lucas and Fergus,
but before my uncles Lucas and Kurt.
Perzactly.
That makes Uncle Beale and
Aunt Stella first cousins,
which makes you and me third cousins.
So I'm asking, why you treatin'
your third cousin this way?
I don't give a damn if you was
Jesus Christ, and my son put together,
I don't know nothin' about no John Brown.
Especially in front of her.
She don't look like she
no kin to him at all.
I didn't say she was kin.
This here girl belong
to John Brown, and he's looking for her.
If I didn't know better,
I'd say she's kin to old Gus Shackleford,
whose flame got snuffed out
for talking to John Brown.
Now, Gus had a boy Henry.
Trifling little shit, lazy as hell.
Stop wastin' time!
You know where the Old Man is or not?
Well, Bob
A jar of peaches go far
this time of year.
I ain't got no peaches, Herbert.
I'll tell you this.
This here girl belong to John Brown,
and you pushing the waters back,
he's liable to ride down here and
put his broadsword on your neck.
Ride round the cabin, move
straight back into the woods.
You'll see a big tree.
You'll find an old whiskey bottle
stuck between the low
branches of that tree.
And make some noise when ya get close.
Old Man's got lookouts.
They'll pull the trigger
and tell the hammer to hurry.
Thank you, cousin.
Bob was the bravest coward I ever met.
But even he got second thoughts about
joining up with the Old Man.
Little brother, I got to cut you loose.
I'd like to go, but my hands
is starting to shake.
Old John Brown has chopped off
heads and eyeballs and all.
He ain't gonna be breathing much longer.
I got a wife and two boys
I hope to see again.
Wait. Can't I come with you?
You are a storm cloud coming.
I like you, Henry, but I don't
like nobody that much.
Where's Pa's horse?
The Old Man greeted me
like I'd just got back
from taking a piss.
Mmm. Welcome, Little Onion. You hungry?
He didn't care much for the details
of his volunteer army.
Men came and went as they pleased.
Weren't no taking attendance.
The abolitionist army was
a come one, come all outfit.
Captain, I got scared and run.
And I took your horse.
Well, you're not the only one
who got scared.
There's lots around here that are shy
about putting God's philosophy
into action.
Frederick?
- Hmm?
- What's Psalm 72?
Uh
You know this one.
Help him out, Owen.
"He shall defend the poor,
save the children of the needy
and break into pieces the oppressor."
Defend the poor, save the children.
That's all you need to know.
All right. Let's give our,
give thanks for this food.
Everyone, let's say a blessing here.
Dear Lord, we thank you
for this beautiful animal
Let me do the praying tonight, Pa.
All right.
O Lord, we give thanks.
- Now let's eat.
- Amen!
Amen.
- Captain.
- What is it?
I missed you, Little Onion.
Jason ran off, too.
Couldn't find him.
John Jr. went looking;
now he's gone, too.
Where you think they gone?
All right.
-Good news, boys.
My old enemy Captain Pate
has Jason and John.
All right? Got him on
the Santa Fe Trail with a posse.
They're headed to Leavenworth
for imprisonment.
Oh, that's the good news?
The good news is that
we're gonna stop them.
And how big's his army?
Somewhere between 50 and 200 men.
Hmm.
No, we're only outnumbered three to one,
or eight to one.
Well, you've always been
good at math. Thank you, son.
I say we ride all night and
surprise them in the morning.
Hmm? Let's pray. Come, come, come.
No, if we have to do it tonight,
let's do it and ride.
Why is it always just as
I'm about to get to the balance
of my thanks with my Savior,
I get interrupted by you?
Jason and John, they don't have time
for three hours of your praying.
We can pray while we ride.
We rode due north to meet Captain Pate
and his militia, of either 50 or 200.
I was full-blown back
in the Old Man's army
and in the business of being a girl
again.
But like most things
the Old Man planned out,
the attack against
Captain Pate's Sharpshooters
didn't work out the way he drawed it up.
We rode out middle summer and by the end,
we still hadn't found him.
George! We got some friends here.
This is Esther, Rose and Abraham.
Frederick, we have some friends here.
Let's make 'em feel welcome.
- I know that wagon.
- Thank you.
Frederick?
I got to go.
I see you still carrying on
the sissy show.
Thought you says you wasn't
gonna join the captain's army.
I come to live large like you.
So you gonna ride with us?
Not hardly. Captain said
he had but a few things to do,
and then we is riding to freedom.
He is riding against
Captain Pate's Sharpshooters.
Why would he do that?
Pate's got his sons John Jr. and Jason.
- When he's riding on Pate?
- The second he finds him.
Count me out of that.
There's 200 in Pate's army.
Pate's got so many Red Shirts,
you'd think he was selling
Calpurnia's flapjacks.
I thought Brown was working
the freedom train north.
Ain't that what you said?
- No. No, I didn't.
- Yes, you did.
What other surprises you got
round here? What's his plan?
I ain't gonna ask him
them kind of things.
You angling on freedom?
I'm learning to read the Bible
and work a pistol.
- Guess I kind of am free.
- Free to get shot.
I ain't come here to read no man's Bible
and fight somebody's slavery.
I aim to get out from under it myself.
My wife and children is still in bondage.
Why ain't you ask him when you joined up?
There weren't no asking.
He done pulled a pistol in massa's face.
Said, "I'm taking your wagon
and freeing your coloreds."
He didn't ask me if I wanted to be free.
Free and dead is not my plan.
I gone from the frying pan to the fire.
Whose horses are those?
The Old Man's always
got stolen horses around.
I wouldn't snatch a horse from them.
Ask him. He might give you one.
Shit, he ain't gonna live long,
child. He's crazy.
Calling the coloreds in the
wagon "mister" and so forth.
He does that all the time.
They will kill him for being so dumb.
He ain't in his right mind.
Bob had a point.
The Old Man weren't normal.
Do you have a fire in your heart
for justice?
All I'm saying,
if you steal from the Old Man,
I don't want to know about it.
Just be quiet about me,
and I'll be quiet about you
little girl.
He's got Jason and John!
He's got Jason and John in shackles!
Mount up to Black Jack!
Onward, Christians! Come on, Frederick!
We found them, boys!
We found them! Captain Pate!
He's got Jason and John in shackles!
In shackles, Salmon! Wake up!
Mount up, boys!
On to Black Jack!
- Help Little Onion get ready.
- Let's go!
Morning, Robert.
I see you're up early,
anxious to strike a blow
for your own freedom.
Sir, I-I got no knowledge
of how to use such things.
Oh, all right then.
This is what you need.
Aim high, strike hard.
It's the only knowledge
you need, Christian.
Onward! Glorious redemption!
Onion, wake up!
Proud of you, Bob.
As we drawed closer to Black Jack,
the Old Man's herd
thinned out like it did
almost every time
we had a real and true fight.
Come on, boys. Come on.
Oh
No talking. No talking.
That's Captain Pate, all right,
tucked in right smart in the tree line.
What's the plan?
Flank or nighttime attack?
I need to seek the counsel
of our personal Savior,
regarding approach.
No, you're right.
I'll talk to His Father.
Straight to the source.
Follow me, men.
Who them fellas?
A free state militia, bought
and paid for by the Secret Six.
Secret Six what?
A bunch of fat white men
back east, easing their minds.
No, they don't have the gumption
to fight for themselves.
I'm Captain William Shore
and these fine gentlemen
are my Shore Sharpshooters.
I will now command.
Where is your leader?
Oh, he's talking to the King of Kings.
I see.
And what, pray tell, is his plan?
Well, guessing, I'd say flank
or nighttime attack,
as Pate is hid pretty good
in that tree line.
Well, I intend to rout Pate and his men
and be home in time for supper.
Now, how do you figure that?
Well, I'm gonna hotfoot it
on down to that ravine yonder
and launch a full-frontal attack.
- A full-frontal attack?
- Exactly.
- Mm.
- The last thing he's expecting.
Do I have your support?
I'm waiting on Pa.
Pa says a man who don't consult with God
carves for himself
and cuts his own fingers.
Yeah. How wonderfully poetic.
Well,
while he's jawboning with Jesus,
we will commence our attack.
I'll see you on the other side
to help with the prisoners.
Port arms.
Follow me, men.
Move forward!
Frederick.
Have we received our
providential orders, Pa?
I have. Full-frontal assault.
Captain Pate!
This is Osawatomie John Brown,
here on behalf
of the emancipation
of all God's creation!
Stuff it, Brown!
Your salvation is in doubt
lest you surrender my sons!
Go to hell, you loon!
Go to hell!
You and your men are lying in the mud
with the harlot of slavery!
Eh, to hell with it.
Let's snake down to that ravine,
soften them up,
and then take them.
You take your men left,
I'll take mine right.
Robert, Onion, you
You stay here
and guard the horses. Let's go.
Now, yours truly was
happy to guard the horses.
But Captain Shore's attack
had gived away our positions.
And pretty soon, me and Bob
was in the hothouse.
I got halfway down the hill
when I realized
I had lost my mind.
And a child shall lead us!
Onion's here, boys!
There's a girl among us!
Thanks be to God
for inspiring us to glory!
You don't make time for God,
God will not make time for you.
All right. All right, boys!
They've wasted a lot of ammo.
They are nearly spent.
Follow me, walk slow, aim low,
make every fired shot count!
Goddamn it!
An hour later,
they were all out of bullets,
and the battle was over.
My name's Osawatomie John Brown
and I am here in the name of freedom!
I heard you the first time,
you blackhearted,
nigger-stealing son of a bitch.
Half them sorry asses turned tail
when they figured they was facing
the almighty John Brown.
Where are my boys Jason and John Jr.?
You ain't never gonna see
them boys again, John Brown.
They at Fort Leavenworth
under federal dragoons.
Then I will go there directly
and exchange you for them.
Damn, you ain't gonna kill me.
You mind telling my boys that
you ain't gonna boil their skull
and eat their eyeballs like
Tell them I'm not hungry yet.
Onion! A reading from our Lord!
Ecclesiastes. "The words of the Preacher,
the son of David, king of Jerusalem."
I should've just
aired you out in Osawatomie last year!
You had your chance.
You ain't never gonna
make it to Leavenworth!
This trail is crawling with Red Shirts.
Reverend Martin's Red Shirts
Oh, look here!
Here are the Federals!
You ain't gonna make it now!
Who goes there?
My name is Osawatomie John Brown.
Then you are under arrest
for violating the laws
of Kansas Territory.
We don't abide
by any bogus laws of Kansas Territory.
Well, then you will abide by this.
Owen? Isaiah 5:22.
"Though by dawn's early light,
the heathen souls were
eaten by ravenous goats."
I am charged
with liberating every Negro
in this territory.
Hmm. On whose authority?
The Lord of Lords!
The King of Kings! The Prince of Peace!
- Glory, Hallelujah!
- Amen.
I'm not here to debate
theological legalism, Mr. Brown.
Now if you tell your men
to lay down their arms,
there will be no trouble.
Does your work entail
the exchange of prisoners?
It does.
Well, we have 11 prisoners
here from Black Jack.
Now bringing them to, uh, Fort
Leavenworth for your justice.
All I want is my boys. Nothing more.
I say 11 for two is a fair deal.
I'll turn myself over, without a fight
or unkind word.
Oh, but if you don't,
then my brothers here
will aim for your heart.
And yours alone.
And while we may lose the fight,
of your death we can be certain.
Names of the prisoners?
Jason and John Brown Jr.
We just came here to settle.
We lost everything. Our farm, crops,
animals.
Burned by these men right here.
These rabble!
- Is this true?
- We did burn
these nigger-stealers' crops.
Twice.
And I will again, if we get the chance.
You, sir, have an ugly disposition.
Now
If I transport your prisoners
to Leavenworth,
can I trust you to stay here?
What's your name, son?
Lieutenant Jeb Stuart.
Frederick, would you fetch Mama's Bible
- for the lieutenant?
- Yes, sir.
Lieutenant, tell anyone
who wants to listen
that I will be right here
for the next three days,
waiting for my sons.
And if they're not here, unharmed,
I'll burn this territory to the ground.
And upon their return,
you will surrender yourself?
I
John Brown,
hereby swear to wait three days
while you fetch my boys,
at which time, I will hand
myself over to the Almighty,
by the hand of God.
John Brown always said,
"Be mild with the mild,
shrewd with the crafty,
rough to the ruffian.
With a liar?
Be a thunderbolt."
What that meant was,
you can lie your ass off to anyone
who doesn't believe all people's equal.
He waited for that poor Jeb Stuart
and bushwhacked the Federals,
and got the Brown family back together.
Slow music
Oh.
Oh, no.
Oh, we
Don't touch it.
It's a Good Lord bird.
Oh
L-Let's get the bird
and give it to your pa when we see him.
He'll know what to do.
He'll fix the whole thing up righteously.
Hide. Hide.
Evening, Reverend.
Mr. Peabody.
That'll teach you to draw on me,
you stupid nigger-loving bastard.
We got us a Brown boy.
The biggest one.
You ain't got to shoot him
cold-blooded like that!
What kind of a reverend is you, anyway?
You rode with that boy!
Listen, he was a free stater
and a Brown.
Goddamn it!
I don't give a fiddler's fart
if he was George Washington.
He did not draw on you, and
now he's deader than a turnip.
Listen, Brown won't tarry
when he finds his boy dead out here.
You want to wait for him?
You's a muggins.
Let's ride.
Come on.
I'm gonna end up dead with two inside me.
Goddamn it, let's go. Son of a bitch.
Wake up.
Wake up. They gone now.
Frederick, wake up.
Wake up. Wake up!
Frederick.
Oh, Frederick.
I was learning quick.
Slavery was a poisonous snake.
Give my hellos to my pa.
Everybody knew that.
But freedom,
the kind that was being
offered, with no home,
no food, and not a friend in the world?
That snake was just as poisonous.
One snake pointed north.
One snake pointed south.
And they both bit the nigger.
You were a friend to Frederick.
He was fond of you.
And for that, I'll always be grateful.
Father,
let's bury Frederick and let
the Federals have the fight.
They'll be here soon, and
I don't want to fight anymore.
None of us do.
We've done enough for the cause.
Well
This is beautiful country.
Frederick has left us a wonderful omen.
Please.
Stay with us.
I have only a short time left to live,
and I plan on dying
fighting for this cause.
America will never have peace
until we've dealt with slavery.
So I plan
on sending a message to the slavers.
I'll take this fight
all the way to Africa, if need be.
And I hope someday
you'll be lucky enough
to have a cause worth dying for.
As misguided though they are,
even the slavers have that.
You're brave boys. No, you're brave men.
All of you. I'm proud of you.
Proud of you all.
Are you going to kill the reverend?
No.
We don't ride for revenge.
We ride for justice.
I'm gonna go pray,
comingle with our Great Father,
upon whose blood we live.
You bury Frederick right.
You hear me, boys?
Yes, sir.
And you watch after Little Onion.
Mm. Robert?
Would you like to ride with me?
All right. Well
It's been an honor
serving in the great fight with you boys.
Come on. Hey.
And with that
he was gone.
I wouldn't see him again
for a very long time.