The narrator, Onion, is a boy with feminine features whose father is killed during an altercation at his job between John Brown and a slave owner. This is the same John Brown who raided Harper's Ferry in 1859. In the frenzy of his father's death, John Brown takes Onion with him believing he is a girl. Onion, whose real name is Henry Shackleford, tries to explain that he's a boy, but never fully gets an opportunity. He is given a dress and that seems to be the end of that.
The rest of the book follows Onion as he continues to dress like a girl, yet seek true freedom. However, the longer he remains with John Brown and his so-called army, the more he becomes connected with them. He sticks around to help them arrange the raid on Harper's Ferry. If you want a little historical background on the Harper's Ferry raid, Wikipedia has pretty good entry. Onion is not being held hostage or kept in slave bondage. He stays and returns of his own free will. He, in fact, has several opportunities to flee to the North and be free, but his growing affection for Brown's abolitionist ways keeps him there even when everything goes horribly wrong. Along the way he meets Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglas. There is some chatter about how Douglass is portrayed as a bit of a womanizer, but I didn't see a problem with how it was written.
As I said, there were parts of this book that put me to sleep. John Brown's character for one. Every time he's talking, it's a drag and uninteresting. Also any battle scene bored me to tears, but that's just because I've just never really been into reading about battles. The parts of the book I enjoyed were Onion's interactions with everyone outside of the group of abolitionists. How he deals with wanting to be a male, yet having to keep the disguise going in order to live is pretty entertaining. There are some comedic moments, but I never laughed out loud as some of my friends who read the book said they did. I almost wish the book were just about a young male slave passing as a boy or vice versa trying to make it up North. That, alone, could make for a more compelling story. I really just found the book to be OK. I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it. It's your call if you want to give it a try.
