A major new film about a real-life escaped slave premiered this week. Emancipation is the story of “Whipped Peter”, who fled barbaric forced labour on a railroad in 1863 and went on a perilous 10-day journey through the Louisiana swamps before finding refuge at a Union encampment. Photographs of his back, a mesh of welts and strafe marks, shocked Americans and aided the abolitionist cause.
Reviews were largely ecstatic, praising its commitment to the brutal truth and the unflinching, moving performance of its leading actor. A shoo-in for awards glory, presumably?
