![]() It was a hideous constellation of scars: visual proof of the brutality of slavery. The marks extended from his buttocks to his shoulders, calling to mind the viciousness and power with which he had been beaten. Raised welts and strafe marks crisscrossed his back. And when he joined the Union Army after his escape from slavery, Peter exposed his scars during a medical examination. During Peter's enslavement on John and Bridget Lyons’ Louisiana plantation, Peter endured not just the indignity of slavery, but a brutal whipping that nearly took his life. When he reached the soldiers, Peter’s clothing was ragged and soaked with mud and sweat.īut his 10-day ordeal was nothing compared to what he had already been through. He had been pursued for miles, had run barefoot through creeks and across fields. In the case of an escaped enslaved man who came to be called "Whipped Peter," an 1863 photo of his savagely scarred back helped raise a national outcry against the cruelty of slavery.īy the time Peter had made it to a Union encampment in Baton Rouge in March 1863, he had been through hell. An escaped enslaved man named Peter showing his scarred back at a medical examination in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, 1863.Ī picture can speak volumes.
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