Gordon (slave)

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Gordon, or "Whipped Peter" (fl. 1863), was an enslaved African American who escaped from a Louisiana plantation in March 1863, gaining freedom when he reached the Union camp near Baton Rouge. He became known as the subject of photographs documenting the extensive scarring of his back from whippings received in slavery. Abolitionists distributed these carte de visite photographs of Gordon throughout the United States and internationally to show the abuses of slavery.

In July 1863 these images appeared in an article about Gordon published in Harper's Weekly, the most widely read journal during the Civil War. The pictures of Gordon's scourged back provided Northerners with visual evidence of brutal treatment of slaves and inspired many free blacks to enlist in the Union Army. Gordon joined the United States Colored Troops soon after their founding, and served as a soldier in the war.

Video Gordon (slave)

Escape

Gordon escaped in March 1863 from the 3,000-acre (12 km²) plantation of John and Bridget Lyons, who owned him and nearly forty other slaves at the time of the 1860 census. The Lyons plantation was located along the west bank of the Atchafalaya River in St. Landry Parish, between present-day Melville and Krotz Springs, Louisiana.

In order to mask his scent from the bloodhounds that were chasing him, Gordon took onions from his plantation, which he carried in his pockets. After crossing each creek or swamp, he rubbed his body with these onions in order to throw the dogs off his scent. He fled over 40 miles (64 km) over the course of ten days before reaching Union soldiers of the XIX Corps who were stationed in Baton Rouge.

Maps Gordon (slave)

Arrival at Union camp

Upon arrival at the Union camp, Gordon underwent a medical examination on April 2, 1863, which revealed severe keloid scars from several whippings. Itinerant photographers William D. McPherson and his partner Mr. Oliver, who were in camp at the time, produced carte de visite photos of Gordon showing his back.

During the examination, Gordon is quoted as saying,

"Ten days from to-day I left the plantation. Overseer Artayou Carrier whipped me. I was two months in bed sore from the whipping. My master come after I was whipped; he discharged the overseer. My master was not present. I don't remember the whipping. I was two months in bed sore from the whipping and my sense began to come - I was sort of crazy. I tried to shoot everybody. They said so, I did not know. I did not know that I had attempted to shoot everyone; they told me so. I burned up all my clothes; but I don't remember that. I never was this way (crazy) before. I don't know what make me come that way (crazy). My master come after I was whipped; saw me in bed; he discharged the overseer. They told me I attempted to shoot my wife the first one; I did not shoot any one; I did not harm any one. My master's Capt. JOHN LYON, cotton planter, on Atchafalya, near Washington, Louisiana. Whipped two months before Christmas."

Service in Union Army

Gordon joined the Union Army as a guide three months after the Emancipation Proclamation allowed for the enrollment of freed slaves into the military forces. On one expedition, he was taken prisoner by the Confederates; they tied him up, beat him, and left him for dead. He survived and once more escaped to Union lines.

Gordon soon afterwards enlisted in a U.S. Colored Troops Civil War unit. He was said to have fought bravely as a sergeant in the Corps d'Afrique during the Siege of Port Hudson in May 1863. It was the first time that African-American soldiers played a leading role in an assault.

Legacy

The Atlantic's editor-in-chief James Bennet in 2011 noted, "Part of the incredible power of this image I think is the dignity of that man. He's posing. His expression is almost indifferent. I just find that remarkable. He's basically saying, 'This is a fact.'"

In popular culture

• In the 2012 film Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln's son Tad viewed a glass plate of Gordon's medical examination photo by candlelight.

Gallery

References

Notes

Bibliography

• "A Picture for the Times". The Liberator. Boston. July 3, 1863. p. 3. Retrieved October 16, 2014 - via Newspapers.com.
• "A Typical Negro". Harper's Weekly: 429. July 4, 1863. Retrieved October 22, 2014.
• Abruzzo, Margaret (Mar 29, 2011). Polemical Pain: Slavery, Cruelty, and the Rise of Humanitarianism. JHU Press. p. 309. ISBN 9781421401270. Retrieved July 30, 2014.
• "Civil War CDV of African American Contraband, Baton Rouge, La". Cowan's Auctions. Archived from the original on October 22, 2014. Retrieved October 22, 2014. Civil War CDV of African American Contraband, Baton Rouge, La., 2008, Historic Americana Auction, Dec 4 & 5 with imprint of McPherson & Oliver, Baton Rouge, and verso inked inscription Contraband that marched 40 miles to get to our lines. An exceptional image.
• "Copy photograph of Gordon, a runaway slave". Yale University Library Catalog. Retrieved September 24, 2014.
• Goodyear III, Frank H. "Photography changes the way we record and respond to social issues". Smithsonian Institution. Archived from the original on May 1, 2013. Retrieved August 26, 2013.
• Heidler, David Stephen; Heidler, Jeanne T.; Coles, David J. (2002). Encyclopedia of the American Civil War: A Political, Social, and Military History. W. W. Norton & Company. p. 931. ISBN 039304758X.
• Lyons Shaw, Adonica (n.d.). "Captain John Lyons of St. Landry Parish". Lyons Family website.
• Norris, Michele (December 5, 2011). "'The Atlantic' Remembers Its Civil War Stories". NPR. Retrieved August 24, 2013.
• Population schedules of the eighth census of the United States, 1860, Louisiana. Reel 431 - St. Landry Parish. 1965 [1860]. p. 111. OCLC 22655687. Retrieved January 4, 2015.
• Rymer, Eric. "Ten days from today I left the plantation". Historylink101. Archived from the original on July 28, 2014. Retrieved October 22, 2014.
• "Scars of slavery". The National Archives. Retrieved August 26, 2013.
• "The Scourged Slave's Back". The Liberator. Boston, Massachusetts. September 4, 1863. p. 3. Retrieved August 25, 2014 - via Newspapers.com.
• Shumard, Ann. "Bound for Freedom's Light". Civil War Trust. Archived from the original on May 21, 2013. Retrieved August 24, 2013.
• Silkenat, David (August 8, 2014). ""A Typical Negro": Gordon, Peter, Vincent Coyler, and the Story Behind Slavery's Most Famous Photograph". American Nineteenth Century History. 15: 169-186. doi:10.1080/14664658.2014.939807. Retrieved June 23, 2015.

Further reading

• Edwards, Ron. "The Whipping Scars On The Back of The Fugitive Slave Named Gordon". US Slave Blog. Retrieved August 24, 2013.
• Goodyear III, Frank. "The Scourged Back: How Runaway Slave and Soldier Private Gordon Changed History". America's Black Holocaust Museum. Archived from the original on January 5, 2015. Retrieved January 5, 2015.
• Paulson Gage, Joan (September 30, 2009). "A Slave Named Gordon". The New York Times. Retrieved August 24, 2013.
• Paulson Gage, Joan (August 5, 2013). "Icons of Cruelty". The New York Times. Retrieved August 24, 2013.
• Bostonian (December 3, 1863). "The Realities of Slavery". New-York Daily Tribune. p. 4. Retrieved June 27, 2015.

Source of article : Wikipedia