Showtime will team with production company Blumhouse Television for a new limited series Good Lord Bird, based on the novel from author James McBride, the network said Monday.

The series will star Ethan Hawke, with Emmy winner Anthony Hemingway (Underground) serving as executive producer, Showtime said.

The eight-part limited series is told from the point of view of an enslaved teenager who becomes a member in 19th century abolitionist John Brown’s family during the time of Bleeding Kansas, eventually participating in the famous 1859 raid on the Army depot at Harpers Ferry. Brown’s raid failed to initiate the slave revolt he intended, but was the instigating event that started the Civil War, said the network. 

Hawke along with producer Mark Richard (The Ice at the Bottom of the World and Hell on Wheels) will also serve as executive producers on Good Lord Bird.