Brother Future

A street smart Detroit rapper suffers a trauma which sends him back to the year 1822 in the deep south. He falls into the hands of slavers and is sold as a fieldhand, receiving a first hand education in life as an indentured worker. A funny yet grim look at early America.

I watched this in middle school with my class and again in college on my own and I think that it's a powerful film for young individuals to watch. It's good education on that time in America when certain people had next to no rights. I think that's it's quite a story for a black individual from (what was then) the present time going back to the times of slavery to learn what it was like and to also enlighten those from the past on what things would eventually be like. The part where the main character discussed Martin Luther King Jr was profound. It's not the most well-made film but still a good one to watch!

Excellent story. It's been a while since I have seen it, but my brother has it on tape when it first aired.

It is definitely a story ingrained in my memory, and some day I may borrow it and watch it again.

Very educational and enlightening and well done.

It wasn't afraid of tackling this subject and adressing it without some repercussions of political correctness.

Could have had more to it, definitely, but this could serve as a possible prototype to future stories dealing with history and time travel, a Hollywood fave.

Petty street hustler T.J. finds himself transported from present-day Detroit to 1822 Charleston, South Carolina. He is captured and sold at a slave auction to a plantation owner "Master Cooper."

T.J. is at first arrogant and blissfully ignorant of the struggle for freedom that African-Americans valiantly faced and overcame, and the legacy the brave souls who put their lives on the line (and who sometimes lost those lives) left to those who still fight the ongoing battle for civil rights and equal opportunity.

That all changes after T.J. unintentionally gets a young slave he has befriended beaten brutally for one of his own backfired stunts. He helps the young slave learn to read and write and then helps the young man and his wife-to-be escape the Cooper Plantation. Although it is never stated, I got the distinct impression these young runaways were T.J.'s direct ancestors.

In his humbling experience/history lesson, T.J. also meets real-life hero Denmark Vesey, a freed former slave who leads a slave revolt, and is hanged with his co-conspirators, becoming a martyr to the cause of freedom.

Gifted comic actor Phill Lewis ("City Slickers") is both funny and touching as T.J. Carl Lumbly ("How Stella Got Her Groove Back," "Men of Honor") was properly dignified as the unforgettable Vesey. Lumbley's real-life wife, Vonetta McGee, sparkles as the house slave and psychic Motilla, who turns out to be T.J.'s spiritual guide through his surreal and harrowing experience. Frank Converse, who has made a career playing corrupt cops, crime bosses and other unsympathetic types, was properly cast as Master Cooper, who despite his brutality, was probably a more compassionate slave owner than most.

This is an excellent history lesson masquerading as fantasy, and should be a staple in junior high and high schools for Black History Month.

deleted, edited, erased, etc.,! If (negative) history is not to be repeated... it must not be forgot! *

Steve M. Arce Semper Fidelis...

Nemo me

*The Vesey rebellion Perhaps inspired by the revolutionary spirit and actions of slaves in Saint Domingue (known today as the Haitian Revolution), Vesey is alleged to have planned what would have been the largest slave rebellion in U.S. history. His insurrection, which was to take place on Bastille Day, July 14, 1822, became known by about 9,000 slaves and throughout Charleston. The plan called for Vesey and his group of slaves and free blacks to take over the city of Charleston and by some accounts to inflict atrocities and killings on the local white population. After the rebellion was to have taken place, Vesey and his followers planned on fleeing to Haiti to escape retaliation. The plot was leaked by two slaves opposed to Vesey's movement, and 131 people were charged with conspiracy by Charleston authorities. In total, 67 men were convicted and 35 hanged, including Denmark Vesey.

One of his sons, Sandy Vesey, was transported, probably to Cuba, and his last wife, Susan, later emigrated to Liberia. Another son, Robert Vesey, survived to rebuild the city's AME Church in 1865.