A young escaped Missouri slave joins the first Black regiment to fight in the Civil War while pursued relentlessly by the man who once raised him, and enslaved him.
George Washington looks across the frozen Missouri River, his path to freedom.
Jesse Miller, enraged and shaken, is determined to bring George back.
The 1st Kansas enters enemy territory for the first time as the Bushwhackers prepare their assault.
Bushwhackers charge the 1st Kansas Infantry at Island Mound.
George stands his ground.
Emerging victorious after the first-ever battle fought by black Union soldiers.
George’s fight for freedom had only just begun.
FEATURE FILM IN DEVELOPMENT
Private Washington (working title) is a feature film inspired by the oral history of George Washington, an escaped Missouri slave who became a soldier in the fight for freedom.
On a bitter January night in 1862, George escapes the shackles of his owner Jesse Miller, the man who was once a surrogate “father” figure, but bound him in servitude. With Jesse in close pursuit, George flees across a frozen Missouri River under cover of darkness, beginning a harrowing adventure in his perilous quest for liberty and personhood in Kansas.
As George evades capture, Jesse enlists the help of Missouri Bushwhackers and notorious outlaws like Jesse James and “Bloody” Bill Anderson. George’s fight for survival leads him to the 1st Kansas Colored Infantry. Now in uniform, he takes up arms against the very forces hunting him.
The film reaches a second-act climax during the Battle of Island Mound, the first Civil War conflict fought by Black soldiers. Amidst the chaos, George faces his former master, Jesse, on the battlefield—a confrontation charged with tension but marked by neither landing a decisive blow. The encounter leaves their conflict unresolved, setting the stage for George’s ultimate reckoning.
In the third act, George leads a detachment of the 1st Kansas on a daring raid of Jesse’s Missouri farm—the place where George was raised and enslaved. This final act brings his journey full circle, culminating in a powerful confrontation with his past and a decisive assertion of his freedom.
Rooted in historical truth, Private Washington unfolds within the rugged landscapes and volatile conflicts of the Missouri-Kansas border war, an explosive chapter of the Civil War seldom explored in cinema.
Breaking away from conventional narratives, the film centers African Americans as agents of their own salvation, rejecting portrayals of victimhood and sidelining the trope of the white savior.
Blending intense action, vivid Western imagery, and themes of resilience and humanity, Private Washington resonates with universal ideas of freedom and self-determination.
This is a story as vital as it is overdue.
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Brant Hadfield - Story Creator
The 1st Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantry, agents of their own salvation.