The story of ‘Peter whipped’, the slave who escaped and shocked the world with his huge keloid scar

Will Smith will play him in “Emancipation” and there is already talk that he is going for another Oscar. The fierce trailer and the release date of the film.

Who will pick up the Oscar for Will Smith if the actor wins it again in 2023 by emancipation? History, slavery, racism, redemption, superstars, United States. Only in case of artistic disaster, a few months from now we won’t stop listening: “Emancipation”, “Emancipation”, “Emancipation”…

Behind many photographs perfect stories are hidden. Perfect stories that illuminate creative minds and creative minds that, with the help of pens or keyboards, are capable of writing, as in today’s case, scripts. And these scripts, sometimes, become movies.

They did it Clint Eastwood with “Raising the flag on Iwo Jima”, the Coen brothers transferring the work of Eudora Welty a O Brother! Y Andrew Dominic using the photos with which one usually recognizes Marilyn Monroe for Blonde. Now it’s Fuqua’s turn.



The famous photo that McPherson and Oliver took of Peter whipped.

photographer stuff

Emancipation, which will be released on December 2 in theaters and on the 9th of that month on Apple TV +, was born thanks to a series of photographs that were taken of it William D McPherson Y Mr Oliver to the slave whipped peteralso know as whipped peter Or simply, Gordon.

In the most famous of these pictures published in 1863 by The Independent Peter is seen from behind with a huge keloid scar on the back of his torso.

The photograph (which has plenty of force) became a symbol, since it was used by the abolitionist movement during the American Civil War as graphic and irrefutable proof of the ferocious punishments to which slaves were subjected.

A Harper's Weekly note with Peter's photos, 1863.


A Harper’s Weekly note with Peter’s photos, 1863.

Will Smith will play Gordon at 24 frames per second. He will recreate the moment of the historic session. In Emancipation we will see how Fuqua and Bill Collage, the screenwriter, tell the perfect story behind.

The escape

A handful of days before Peter’s photograph showed that the cameras had arrived to change the course of history, Gordon was a slave to John and Bridget Lyons.

He was one of 40 who worked for them on a plantation eight miles from Louisiana. One of the many whipped by the foreman Artayou Carrier.

Due to the whipping – which Gordon ceased to remember once suffered – the slave was bedridden for two months.

Will Smith (right) portraying Peter in Emancipation.


Will Smith (right) portraying Peter in Emancipation.

The blows drove him crazy. Out of pain he tried to shoot everyone (his wife and masters included) and burned his clothes.

Ten days after this final episode, Gordon escaped from the plantation.

Like the protagonist of Fahrenheit 451, the scourge successfully fled for 40 miles. He was hiding from some dogs that were following his trail, rubbing onions on their bodies after crossing streams.

At the end of his path, he met the Union military, who welcomed him and, as we already know, took pictures of him during a medical examination.

Having spent three months of the Emancipation Proclamation, Peter joined the XIX Corps of the Union, in Baton Rouge. He went from being subdued by slavers to fighting them.

Gordon after joining the Union Army in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Photo: McPherson and Oliver.


Gordon after joining the Union Army in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Photo: McPherson and Oliver.

The Proclamation, issued by Abraham Lincoln On the first day of 1863, he freed more than 3.5 million enslaved African Americans in the breakaway Confederate States from their masters. Many of them, like Gordon, made his freedom official by fleeing.

Peter’s long-suffering adventure would come and go: on an expedition, Gordon was taken prisoner, tied up, beaten and left for dead. But he survived.

His new rise to freedom brought him once more to the Union. He enlisted in the Colored Troops Civil War unit and there, The Liberator claimed, he fought as a sergeant in the Corps d’Afrique during the Siege of Port Hudson in May 1863.

The movie

We do not know how Fuqua will face Peter’s story, although from the intense and dark trailer we can predict something. Will it be Spielberg-esque in Lincoln (where Gordon’s medical exam is read by Abraham’s son)? Maybe like Steve McQueen did in the Oscar-winning and brutal 12 Years a Slave?

The poster of the Apple TV bet for the Oscars 2023.


The poster of the Apple TV bet for the Oscars 2023.

In early October, Smith and Fuqua attended the first screening of Emancipation at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s Annual Legislative Conference. They were part of it together with a group of social impact leaders.

There, at the post-screening conference, the defending champion of the Oscar for Best Actor said: “Throughout my career, I have rejected many films set in slavery. I never wanted to show us like this. And then this image appeared. And this is not a movie about slavery. This is a movie about freedom. This is a film about resilience. This is a movie about faith.”

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The story of ‘Peter whipped’, the slave who escaped and shocked the world with his huge keloid scar