Description

On Xmas Day in 1862, ‘Whipped Peter’ (his real name was Gordon) received yet another merciless thrashing, after which he almost died, he was hut-ridden for two months afterwards. He realised that another beating would surely be his last. The whipping scene in this piece, along with interspersions of Xmas carols and Christian chorales with poignant titles, is hard to listen to, but we should all try. Peter did escape, at the end of March 1863, and found his way through the Louisiana swamps to a Union army settlement at Baton Rouge, where he signed up. This is his story; exuberant, horribly cruel, music depicting his pain after the beating, and flight away from the hated plantation owners, then exhilaration and a return to African roots, though the whipping experience never leaves him.