——The scourged back
Will Smith plays a real historical figure: Peter, a tortured black man who escaped from his slave owners in the American South, and the subject of the famous "proof" photo of American slavery.
In a style describled as more like MEL Gibson-directed Revelations than 12 years a slave, Willam N. Collage wrote the screenplay, which is based on Peter's real-life experiences as he escapes from slave owners, endures cold-hearted hunters and the dangerous swamps of Louisiana, and makes his way north. When he escaped to the Union army and was examined, Peter revealed his bruised back, which had been beaten by the overseers of the plantation. The scene was captured in the famous photograph"the scouraged back", which appeared in the May 1863 issue of the independent and the July 4 issue of Harper's weekly of that year. The photo became one of the evidence of the brutality of slavery in the United States. Its release helped fuel the abolitionist movement and prompted many free black men to join the Union Army. It spread around the world and reportedly caused countries like France to refuse to busy cotton from the American South.
