This is a very fast-paced and fun book that observes abolitionist John Brown from the perspective of a cynical slave boy (named Onion) masquerading as a girl. Only other black people seem to recognize that this is a boy. It's an interesting take on John Brown, who, much as he was a very brave person committed to ending the evils of slavery, was a flawed and extremist person who was not always grounded in reality. He assumed that all of the black people, free and slave, would rally around him in droves, while many of the black characters in the book saw it as "Here comes some white people to 'save' us, for which WE will be the ones who end up dying, being whipped, or sold down south, away from our families." In the end, Onion comes to love and admire John Brown despite the failure of his plan to free the slaves.