Talk:Peter (enslaved man)

plagiarism/copy+paste
Several lines of this article are lifted directly from the Harper's article. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2620:72:0:9999:95DE:1A0F:B70B:4AAB (talk) 19:26, 20 March 2014 (UTC)

Notability
Gordon was not a "Pivotal figure in exposing the brutality of slavery". He exposed only the brutality of one overseer. His role was as a propaganda tool.Royalcourtier (talk) 00:29, 18 May 2014 (UTC)
 * On the contrary, as the subject of this image he was indeed a notable figure. This is particularly true since multiple versions of the story were written at the time. Red Harvest (talk) 18:55, 23 June 2014 (UTC)

- Thank you Royalcourtier. Its not often marginalized, hard working slave overseers are given the benefit of the doubt in this new age. Thank you for defending those courageous souls. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 197.237.190.65 (talk) 06:59, 24 June 2015 (UTC)

Too narrow, likely incorrect in several particulars
I stumbled across this page while doing editing of "whipped slave/Peter" captions. If you research this more you will find various articles were written about Peter aka Gordon...some say he was "Peter Gordon". I've given some references to them on File:Cicatrices de flagellation sur un esclave.jpg talk page, but haven't fully explored the matter. In other sources Peter was a slave from Captain (as in private ship) John Lyons' 1,000 acre Washington, LA plantation. Lyons was killed at his plantation on Sept. 23, 1864 by Union soldiers from Morganza, LA. Red Harvest (talk) 18:55, 23 June 2014 (UTC) i dont think so Hgu42 (talk) 16:09, 18 November 2020 (UTC)

Civil War Record
Could the soldier here and here be Gordon? Scewing (talk) 17:15, 16 October 2014 (UTC)


 * I don't know, but from what I see those are not USCT units so I would guess not. If they prove to be USCT then it would be plausible. Red Harvest (talk) 09:45, 25 October 2014 (UTC)
 * I think the first link is referring to 1st Louisiana Native Guard (United States), an all black regiment Scewing (talk) 04:55, 26 October 2014 (UTC)
 * No, that link refers to a cavalry regiment and doesn't appear to be a predecessor or consolidated unit. Red Harvest (talk) 04:57, 27 October 2014 (UTC)
 * Hmm, the database lists 24 records matches for Gordon, Peter. Scewing (talk) 19:40, 28 October 2014 (UTC)
 * Is there no record at all of what became of Gordon/Peter after the Civil War?
 * reply to previous unsigned comment by - As far as I can tell, I don't think it's even clear what happened to him after April 1863. Union-aligned media claimed he joined the USCT, but there's no clear evidence of this in other primary sources (muster rolls, regimental histories). If he was, in fact, a monolingual speaker of Louisiana French, that might have complicated record-keeping done primarily by speakers of American English from the Freedmen's Bureau, Census Bureau, etc.

jengod (talk) 21:39, 19 June 2024 (UTC)

Errors in article?
The very first lien of the Harpers Ferry article states: "...the negro Gordon, who escaped from his master in Mississippi, and came into our lines at Baton Rouge..." Was he actually a slave in Mississippi or was it the Lyons plantation? Did Lyons take him to Mississippi and he escaped while traveling in or through Mississippi? I'm just trying to understand the source of linking Gordon to the Lyons family. Did they have an overseer named Artayou Carrier? That Carrier or Carriere surname is somewhat prominent in St. Landry Parish. Sf46 (talk) 16:07, 7 August 2015 (UTC)

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"Notes" and "Bibliography" shouldn't be separated
"Notes" Are being misused as inline citations, without linking to the original source. The "bibliography" includes links to some of these sources, but they ought to be included as inline citations.

Much of the bibliography overlaps with the notes, they need to be combined. And "notes" needs to be renamed "citations." Moderngold (talk) 06:10, 14 December 2019 (UTC)

Update: with these three edits, I have mostly addressed the issue by replacing references with their matching bibliography entry. However, there are still some issues:
 * Two bibliography entries have no inline citations
 * Inline citations might be misplaced (why is there three separate citations in three different places in Gordon's quote?)

Please note - I merely changed the formatting. I did not make sure whether references are used correctly, although I suspect many are not.

Moderngold (talk) 08:01, 14 December 2019 (UTC)

The bibliography includes: Silkenat, D 2014, '“A Typical Negro”: Gordon, Peter, Vincent Colyer, and the story behind slavery's most famous photograph', American Nineteenth Century History, vol. 15, no. 2, pp. 169-186. https://doi.org/10.1080/14664658.2014.939807

This 2014 academic investigation is fascinating - not least because it questions, contradicts and casts serious doubt on so much of the accepted story. Essential reading. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.105.242.151 (talk) 19:35, 3 December 2020 (UTC)


 * I am not understanding your points about citation style. The references use cite web, cite book, etc. templates. The citations will vary depending upon the type of source... as they should. For instance, cite journal and cite magazine look different than cite book, well, unless the chapter parameter is used.–CaroleHenson (talk) 18:54, 22 April 2023 (UTC)

Murder of Owner...
John Lyons was killed September 23, 1864 at their Atchafalaya River plantation home. He was called out of his house in the middle of the night by a party of Federal soldiers from Morganza and murdered at his own front door

Ref: The Conduct of Federal Troops in Louisiana During the Invasions of 1863 and 1864 by Acadiana Press — Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.105.242.151 (talk) 10:59, 3 December 2020 (UTC)

Big blocks of quotes
This is not encyclopedic content to have three long quotes about photos of him, but it could be summarized into three or four sentences. Bring it here to the talk page to discuss.

!. Summarized in this edit.–CaroleHenson (talk) 04:56, 17 May 2021 (UTC)

2nd quote doesn't have a name (perhaps by the surgeon who wrote to his brother) or a source and 3. summarized here.–CaroleHenson (talk) 05:10, 17 May 2021 (UTC)

4. Put part of this in the article here–CaroleHenson (talk) 05:26, 17 May 2021 (UTC)

–CaroleHenson (talk) 04:40, 17 May 2021 (UTC)


 * Summarizing quotes - work-in-progress.–CaroleHenson (talk) 04:56, 17 May 2021 (UTC)


 * Done.–CaroleHenson (talk) 05:26, 17 May 2021 (UTC)

Reverted edit
I reverted an edit here because the title of the article is Gordon (slave) right now.

I do understand the point about not being a slave his entire life. I also feel that there may be a better way to differentiate Gordon than slave, perhaps "enslaved man" or something else.–CaroleHenson (talk) 15:44, 4 September 2022 (UTC)

Title issue, change parenthetical
I would be in favor of changing the parenthetical to "enslaved man". No human is a slave, but rather forced into slavery by violence. I see this title change as a small act of justice to Gordon's memory. I am in agreement with CaroleHenson. Hoyboy 1 (talk) 17:33, 22 April 2023 (UTC)


 * To officially weigh-in on the title change, that works for me.–CaroleHenson (talk) 18:58, 22 April 2023 (UTC)