Mandingo

On a visit to a neighboring plantation, Hammond selects Ellen among the enslaved women offered as hospitality. Charles abuses the other woman, claiming she likes it, while Ellen says she does not. Hammond sleeps with Ellen that night.

Warren Maxwell pressures Hammond to marry. Hammond chooses his cousin Blanche, who wants to escape her brother Charles's hold, and it is implied Blanche previously had an incestuous relationship with Charles.

After their wedding, Hammond grows suspicious that Blanche is not a virgin. Blanche denies the claim, setting up later tensions.

On the way back from their honeymoon, Hammond returns to the Falconhurst plantation where Ellen is kept and purchases her to be his sex slave. He will come to genuinely care for her over time.

Hammond purchases Mede, a Mandingo slave, who is forced to soak in a large cauldron of very hot salt water to toughen his skin. He becomes a prizefighter, and Hammond uses Mede's fights to make money.

Hammond has Mede bred with Pearl, a slave who is related to him, despite the risk of inbreeding. The breeding increases Mede's value and lineage.

Blanche becomes a slovenly alcoholic while Hammond is away on a business trip. Blanche discovers Ellen is pregnant and beats her. Ellen flees but later suffers a miscarriage after a fall down the stairs; Hammond returns and finds that Ellen has lost the baby, though she does not reveal how it happened.

Hammond gives Ellen a pair of ruby earrings to wear while serving an evening meal, and he gives Blanche the matching necklace. Blanche becomes enraged to see Ellen publicly favored by Hammond.

While Hammond is away on another business trip, a drunken Blanche orders Mede to come to her bedroom. Despite the other slaves attempting to stop him, Mede sleeps with Blanche on several occasions.

Warren Maxwell senses trouble and locks Hammond and Blanche in a room together until they reconcile. They appear to reconcile, and Blanche becomes pregnant with a mixed race child. To avoid scandal, doctors order the infant to bleed to death from the umbilical cord after birth.

Hammond, outraged by Blanche's infidelity, asks the doctor if there is poison he uses on old slaves and horses and contemplates poisoning Blanche. He later considers Mede's testimony about Blanche's coercion as he plans his next move.

Hammond tries to force Mede into a boiling cauldron; Mede tries to explain Blanche's coercion. Hammond shoots Mede twice, sending him into the boiling water where he drowns. In the same moment, a slave named Agamemnon shoots Warren after being provoked, and Hammond kneels beside Warren's lifeless body as the chaos subsides.