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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.