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An American poet once lamented the criminal slave trade:
"In the depths of the sea, in the muddy sand, the forgotten, chained human remains, in the dead darkness, shimmered the bones of the unfortunate slaves".......
The rise of the slave trade
Once one of the birthplaces of mankind and the birthplace of many ancient civilizations, parts of Africa had a brief period of economic and cultural prosperity before the 16th century. However, since the beginning of the 16th century, Spain, Portugal, England, France and other countries have embarked on the road.
With the continuous invasion of these colonialists, they broke the original process of social and cultural development in Africa, and a period of incomparably dark history followed. The rise of capitalism turned Africa, the land that gave birth to many lives, into a place where black slaves were captured. Gradually, it even became a specialized trade. Many Europeans saw that it was profitable to do so, and they joined the ranks of this evil slave trade.
Slave traders generally set out from Europe, first to Africa to capture a large number of blacks, and then transport them to the Americas, sell them to those plantations, farmers, and then from the Americas to transport some tobacco, grain, industrial raw materials, mineral resources, etc. back to Europe, forming a complete trade route, because this route is like a "triangle shape", so this black slave trade is also called.
Although the black slave trade promoted the rapid development of European capitalism and the plantation economy in the Americas to a certain extent, allowing Europeans to complete the most primitive capital accumulation during this period, it also became the darkest page in African history, and hundreds of millions of African laborers were greatly consumed, resulting in the end Africa itself becoming more and more poor and backward. It can be said that behind such capitalism is the blood of many African peoples.
Black slave Peter Gordon
According to historical estimates, over a period of 400 years, as many as 12 million black slaves were sold from Africa to the Americas, and more than 10 million died during transportation. These Africans were transported as slaves to the Americas, Asia, and the Indian Ocean, where they were subjected to heavy physical labor on the plantations of the colonizers, who saw them as cheap "cattle" and could be whipped and humiliated at will.
How miserable was the life of the black slaves who were once trafficked to the Americas? I don't think it takes too many words to say that this shocking photo says it all for us. The main character in the photograph is an African "black slave" living in the 18th century, named Peter Gordon. Gordon), who in March 1863, came from what was then the United States, why did Peter Gordon risk his life to go to the north of the United States?
The outbreak of the Civil War
This is mainly due to the rapid development of capitalism in the North after the independence of the United States at that time, and the industrial revolution began in the twenties of the 19th century, but the South was still practicing the criminal slavery system at that time.
Perhaps the root cause of all contradictions and conflicts still lies in the dispute of interests, the slavery system in the south undoubtedly seriously hindered the development of commercial trade in the north, so the contradiction between the south and the north arose, and even gradually evolved into a fierce contradiction that was difficult to reconcile, so in the 60s of the 19th century, the United States broke out in the largest civil war in the history of its founding - the Civil War.
What began as a war for national unity turned into a revolutionary war for the abolition of slavery. During this period, Abraham Lincoln, then President of the United States, resolutely opposed the division of the North and South of the United States, and preached the claim that the United States should be on the territory.
At his insistence, black slavery was abolished in the United States. This move to emancipate the black slaves undoubtedly brought the dawn of life to the black slaves living in dire straits, so that thousands of black slaves began to flee to the north and actively participated in the struggle against the south, and Peter Gordon was one of them.
Peter Gordon on the run
Before escaping, he had been a slave on a 3,000-acre plantation, and had been beaten by the plantation overseers for a long time. In order to prevent accidents, being chased by the hunting dogs of the plantation, he tried to mask his body with onions as a way to hide the smell of his body.
Perhaps a longing for life kept him alive that he forgot about his physical pain and exhaustion, and on the way to escape, Peter ran barefoot for miles and ran for 10 days before finally reaching the camp of the Northern Army in Baton Rouge. According to the recollections of witnesses at the time, when they saw Peter, he was embarrassed, his clothes were ragged, and his body was already covered with mud and sweat, but his whole mental state and consciousness were still very clear, and you could feel a kind of firmness and composure in his eyes.
"The Whipped Back"
The moment he took off his clothes during the physical examination in the northern camp shocked everyone present, because his back was covered with a large and large raised scar, and the new and old wounds crisscrossed his back, from the shoulders to the buttocks.
It is not difficult to see that Peter, who was once a black slave, was subjected to how cruel the whipping of the slave owner was, and this kind of whipping was also the favorite punishment method of the slave owner in that period, the black slave did not have any human rights in the eyes of the slave owner, but whenever there was a little unpleasantness, these slaves would be hung up and whipped, and the scar on Peter's back was the most naked proof of this cruel slavery, and Peter was by no means an exception, and there were many, many people who carried this scar like him.
Southerners may have been accustomed to such scars, but to the northerners of the time, they were strange and surprised. The photographer who was in the army at the time immediately used his camera to record Peter's back wounds and named the photograph "The Scourged Back."
Later, this photo was also published in Harper's Weekly (Harper's Weekly), and caused a strong social repercussion in the United States at that time, many black slaves were awakened to the consciousness of rebellion, began to flee to the north, and even many people who had been dissatisfied with slavery were completely enraged because of the shock brought by this photo, and began to join the ranks of opposing American slavery.
Emancipation of black slaves
As a result, a "whipped back" became a blazing flame that ignited the abolition of slavery in the United States, and its power was far greater than that of any artillery. It gave impetus to the abolitionist movement in the United States and prompted a large number of blacks to join the Northern Army. On September 22, 1862, the United States officially promulgated the Emancipation Proclamation, after which Peter Gordon joined the American Army of the North and served as a guide in the army at that time, serving the camp that had brought him the dawn of life and returning him to the camp of freedom.
Today, although the past has become a trend, the shock of this photo is still undiminished. "Whipped Back" is still one of the most shocking and influential photographs of the American Civil War.
It is reported that the movie "Emancipation" directed by Anthony Foqua and starring Will Smith will also be scheduled to start filming in early 2021, and this movie is also based on the experience of black slave Peter Gordon. And the style and tone of the whole film will be very similar to "The Revenant", if you are interested, you may be looking forward to the release of this film in the future.