Movie Emancipation: The true story of 'Whipped Peter' in Will Smith's new film

Image source, Getty Images

A photograph of a slave who survived a stroke ouet who left him The mutilated and scarred body helped expose the brutality of American slavery. Actor Will Smith stars in Emancipation, a film that tells the story of "Whipped Peter" and his journey from slave to soldier.

Despite his skin being scratched dozens of times by the sting of a whip, then painfully scarred, Gordon, a runaway slave, posed with challenge for a portrait in 1863.

At the height of the American Civil War - when facts about the horrors of slavery were often decried as false propaganda - gruesome photography revealed the undeniable truth.

Abolitionists dubbed the man in the photo "Whipped Peter", and while historians have debated his real name, there is little doubt on the impact his image has had on the American psyche.

The photo showed "these were real people with real experiences. It was taken to present a visual narrative of the horror of slavery during the Civil War," said Barbara Krauthamer, a prominent historian of slavery and emancipation in the United States, and dean of the College of Humanities and Fine Arts at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

"What often gets lost is the focus on the man himself - the story of this man who understands that war civilian is an opportunity to literally take ownership of your body and your life."

Will Smith's film Emancipation is based on the true story of Gordon/"Whipped Peter...