DRUM

Drum is born to a white prostitute, who raises him with her black lesbian lover. Drum grows up to be a fighter and is often forced to bare-knuckle-box other slaves to the brink of death for the entertainment of the owners, one of whom is a gay Frenchman named Bernard DeMarigny. DeMarigny wants to have sex with Drum. His advances are rejected by the slave and DeMarigny vows revenge against Drum. Drum and his friend Blaise are eventually sold to plantation owner Hammond Maxwell, and are taken to his plantation to work. Another slave, Regine, is purchased by Maxwell and is taken to the plantation as his bed-wench.

After arriving at Maxwell's plantation, Regine is set up in the bedroom above Hammond. Augusta Chauvel, Maxwell's fiancé, is jealous and has other plans for Regine. Maxwell's daughter Sophie wants sex with Drum, but he won't for fear of being killed. Sophie also attempts to seduce Blaise, and after being rejected, tells her father that Blaise has raped her. Blaise is put in chains and Maxwell decides that he must be castrated for the alleged rape. Sophie is sent off to boarding school after getting caught showing her body to Blaise while he is chained.

Meanwhile, a dinner party has been arranged to celebrate the engagement of Maxwell and Chauvel. DeMarigny has been invited to attend the celebration and the guests eventually discuss the best way to castrate a slave. During the party, Drum frees Blaise and the slaves start a revolt at the engagement party. An agreement was made that they would not shoot Blaise; while Drum is attempting to deescalate the revolt, DeMarigny shoots Blaise. Drum turns and grabs hold of DeMarigny's privates and rips them off, telling the slaves to take the house and a siege begins. Both slaves and slave holders are killed during the battle, but Maxwell and Chauvel are saved by Drum. Maxwell tells Drum he must flee; if Drum is captured, Maxwell will be compelled by social expectations to kill him. Chauvel tells Maxwell that all he has to do is tell the slave holders that Drum was loyal and they won't kill him, but Maxwell says he still must kill Drum to maintain discipline over the other slaves. Drum then runs from the plantation.

After a violent revolt during an engagement party, Drum kills DeMarigny and leads the slaves in a siege. Maxwell survives and warns Drum to flee, as he will be forced to kill him if captured. Drum escapes the plantation.

The ending underlines the brutal contradictions of the antebellum South, where Drum’s loyalty and heroism are met with betrayal dictated by social codes. The chaos and bloodshed of the revolt expose the hypocrisy and violence at the system’s core, leaving Drum with no safety and no real allies—only the chance to run. It’s a bleak, unvarnished look at the cost of survival and resistance within a world built on exploitation.