“The true story of Peter ‘Whipped” whose photo changed the perception of slavery in the USA

The photograph of an enslaved man surviving a beating that left his body mutilated and bruised helped expose the brutality of American slavery. Starring Actor Will Smith Liberation — A Story of FreedomA movie that tells the story of “Peter Whipped” and his journey from an enslaved man to the military.

Gordon, a runaway slave, defiantly posed for a portrait in 1863, although his skin had been eroded dozens of times by attacks and then painfully injured.

At the height of the US Civil War—when facts about the horrors of slavery were often blamed as false propaganda—the gruesome photograph revealed the undeniable truth.

Abolitionists named the man in the photograph “Peter the Whipped”, and while historians debate his real name, there is little doubt about the impact his image had on the American psyche.

Barbara Krauthamer, a leading historian of US slavery and liberation and Dean of the School, says the photo “showed these were real people with real experiences. It was taken during the Civil War to provide a visual account of the horrors of slavery.” Humanities and Fine Arts at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

“What is often lost is focus on the person himself – the story of this man who realized that the Civil War was an opportunity to literally take care of his body and his life.”

Will Smith’s movie Liberation — A Story of FreedomInspired by the true story of Gordon/”Peter Whipped” and directed by Antoine Fuqua (“Peter Whipped”)Protector and Invasion of the White House???????? Smith told reporters at the film’s launch that he hoped the film would reveal the power of the human spirit.

“This isn’t just another slave movie. It’s a freedom movie,” Smith said. “I think it’s a story we should all see, hear and feel.”

For the American actor, who was suspended from the Oscars for 10 years after slapping Chris Rock in the face on a live broadcast, the film is seen as a possible new beginning. The comedian who hosted the ceremony made a joke about the appearance of Smith’s wife, Jada, who has alopecia (baldness) and shaved her hair.

a sad escape

In April 1863, a few months after slavery ended with Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation (1809-1865), Gordon arrived at the Union soldiers’ camp outside Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Exhausted, nearly starving, and wearing only rags, Gordon was devastated when he saw the freed black soldiers fighting to end slavery in America, according to a December 1863 column in the New-York Daily Tribune. He demanded that he be enlisted immediately.

During the medical examination, Gordon told officers that he had decided to flee after surviving a brutal beating that brought him to the brink of death and left him in a coma for two months. After being chased for 10 days in the swamps and bays of Louisiana by hounds and hunters of escaped slaves, Gordon finally arrives at the Union camp, where he has won his long-awaited freedom.

He later revealed that he had been “flogged” as evidence. Buried among the soldiers, photographers snapped the now-infamous photo of Gordon posing with a bare back, hand on hip.

The Tribune notes that the sight of her dismembered body “sent a chill of horror to all the whites present, but the few blacks who were waiting … hardly cared for the sad spectacle, the very spooky scenes seem painfully familiar to all.”

According to the National Gallery of Art, a New York journalist noted that the image had to be “multiplied by 100,000 and spread across the United States.”

And that’s exactly what happened.

The horrors of slavery go viral

Gordon’s portrait was taken at a time when the country was debating whether it was worth the war effort and whether enslaved or freed black men should be allowed to enlist as soldiers.

in your book Envisioning Emancipation: Black Americans and the End of Slavery (“Imagining Emancipation: Black Americans and the End of Slavery”, free translation), Krauthamer and his co-author, photographic historian Deborah Willis, describe how advances in photography have allowed Gordon’s image to be reproduced in this way. sticky notes and widely shared.

Abolitionists sold reprints of his image to raise money for his efforts. But Krauthamer says reactions to the portrait have been mixed.

“It was perfectly common for people to say: It’s fake, I don’t believe it,” he says. “Whites didn’t think blacks were credible witnesses, even of their own experiences.”

On July 4, 1863, the popular Harper’s Weekly magazine reprinted an engraving of Gordon / “Peter Whipped” alongside pictures of Gordon in Union uniform. The accompanying article was titled “A Typical Negro” and described Gordon’s heartbreaking escape from slavery and his record of valiant service in the Union Army.

Even for an abolitionist article, historians have noted undertones of racism, as the article’s author went to great lengths to describe Gordon’s “unusual intelligence and energy.”

‘Peter Whipped’ Legacy

The Civil War was one of the first conflicts to be documented by photograph, but few photographs captured the horrors and brutality of slavery as clearly as the image of “Peter Whipped.”

While his images have become an effective tool for abolitionist messages and propaganda, Krauthamer says little is known about Gordon’s life and legacy after joining the Union Army.

“There is a claim to be made that [o retrato] It was just another way of objectifying a black body,” he says, adding that the modern debate over Gordon’s depiction underlines the photograph’s power to document reality.

Less than a century after Gordon’s portrait was taken, Emmett Till’s mother, Maime, held an open-casket funeral after her son was brutally abducted, tortured, and lynched because, in her own words, “I wanted the world to see what they did to my baby.”

This photo of Till’s mutilated body also shocked the American conscience and revealed the enduring legacy of racism in the United States.

As a historian, Krauthamer says he tries to center not only the pain but also the joy of the black American experience in his work.

“Most of my work is ‘What’s the real story?’ “And I just want to know what his life was like. Who did he love? What did he hope to achieve?”

“My hope is that Will Smith’s film and this photograph open a portal to our ability to imagine that history and that humanity,” he added.

– This text was published at https://www.bbc.com/portuguese/geral-63945920.