1. Braxton Bragg Underwood
Owner, Editor, & Printer of the Maycomb Tribune
To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee

2. Description
“Sole owner, editor, and printer” of the Maycomb Tribune (147)
“He rarely gathered news; people brought it to him. It was said that he made up every edition of The Maycomb Tribune out of his own head… This was believable” (148).
Lives above his office (150): Scout says that he “covered the courthouse and jailhouse news simply by looking out his upstairs window” (150).
Spends his days working at the linotype machine (147)
He drinks “from an ever-present gallon jug of cherry wine (148).
Does not usually attend Church
On the Sunday before the trial, Scout notes that “Even Mr. Underwood” was at church. She goes on to say that “Mr. Underwood had no use for any organization but The Maycomb Tribune… Something must have been up to haul Mr. Underwood out” ( ).
Covers the trial of Tom Robinson

3. The “REAL” Braxton Bragg
Controversial commander of the Confederate Army in Tennessee
Also fought in the Seminole War and Mexican War

4. Why did Harper Lee give Mr. Underwood these names?
Jeff Davis respected Bragg and appointed him brigadier general when the Civil War broke out.
Bragg’s troops reinforced Davis’ troops at the Battle of Buena Vista during the Mexican War. Most American regiments had retreated.
Perhaps the incident mirrors Underwood’s covering Atticus at the jail on the night the mob showed up?

5. Why did Harper Lee use the name Underwood?
The Underwood Typewriter Company made the first modern typewriter.
The Underwood No. 5 typewriter was in production from 1900 to the mid-1930’s.
Mr. Underwood is the local newspaperman. She names him for a writing machine.

6. Important Characteristics
Brave
Prejudiced
Principled

7. Brave
After the mob who had come to the jail to take Tom Robinson leaves, Atticus tells Tom that the mob will not bother him anymore. Scout says that Mr. Underwood’s “voice cut crisply through the night: ‘You’re damn tootin’ they won’t.’” Scout observes that “Mr. Underwood and his double-barreled shotgun were leaning out his window above the Maycomb Tribune office” (155).
Underwood wrote an editorial in his newspaper after Tom Robinson’s death arguing that “it was a sin to kill cripples, be they standing, sitting, or escaping” (241). This viewpoint would have been unpopular with the community.

8. Prejudiced
Atticus tells us that Mr. Underwood doesn’t like Negroes and “won’t have one near him” (156).
According to Atticus, “Everybody in Maycomb knows it” (157)
Irony: Despite his views on blacks, Mr. Underwood was ready to defend Atticus and Tom Robinson the night before the trial.

9. Principled Believes that mob violence is wrong.
After the mob leaves, he tells Atticus, “’[h]ad you covered all the time, Atticus. ‘”
Believes that killing someone who has a handicap is wrong, regardless of the circumstances.
“He likened Tom’s death to the senseless slaughter of songbirds by hunters and children” (241).
A mockingbird is a symbol of innocence.

10. Works Cited
Braxton Bragg: A Man of Irreconcilable Contradictions The Civil War Preservation and Trust. March 7, 2009 < htm> Lee, Harper. To Kill A Mockingbird. New York: Warner Books, 1960.