| Director | Antoine Fuqua |
|---|---|
| Budget | $120 million |
At a Louisiana cotton plantation in 1863, a slave named "Peter" is praying with his family when his owner, John Lyons, and a group of white men drag him out of his home at gunpoint. As the wagon carrying him pulls away, Peter cries out to his wife Dodienne and his children that they must stay together until he can find his way back to them. Reaching a Confederate encampment in Clinton, Louisiana, he is put to work alongside other conscripted slaves.
The slaves are poorly fed and clothed despite the grueling labor and endure cruel treatment at the hands of their white guards. They are whipped, set upon by dogs, branded, and dragged by horses if they try to run away, or shot if they stop working because of exhaustion. Peter tells the disheartened slaves to just believe in God and pray.
One day, Peter snaps and attacks one of the guards, triggering an uprising. He and several other slaves escape into the nearby swamps, pursued by the slave catcher Fassel and his men. One slave is unable to swim across a river due to fear of alligators and is caught. After revealing the other slaves' plans, Fassel shoots him and leaves his body for the gators. The three remaining men split up and go their separate ways.
With no supplies or even a clear idea of where to go, Peter nevertheless manages to evade his pursuers time and time again. Just as he is about to reach the safety of Union-held Baton Rouge, Fassel ambushes him and offers to spare his life if he returns to slavery. Peter refuses, but before Fassel kills him, he is fatally shot in the throat by a black member of the 1st Louisiana Native Guard.
Peter is taken to a Union field hospital to recover. A photograph of his back is then taken and distributed throughout the United States to help rally public support for the end of slavery. Peter enlists in the Native Guard; while under fire from Confederate troops, he demonstrates great bravery and is quickly promoted. He spends the rest of the war helping to liberate Confederate plantations, while also reuniting with Dodienne and their children.
In the epilogue, the text states that thanks to the momentum from Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, over four million slaves were freed by Union forces by the war's end in 1865.