Roots: The Saga of an American Family

Roots: The Saga of an American Family is a 700-page novel written by Alex Haley and first published in 1976. It was adapted into a hugely popular, 12-hour television miniseries, also called Roots, in 1977, and a 14-hour sequel, Roots: The Next Generations, in 1979.

Plot introduction

Brought up on the stories of his elderly female relatives -- including his Grandmother Cynthia, who was emancipated from slavery with her family in 1865 -- Alex Haley traced his family history back to "the African," Kunta Kinte, captured by slave traders in 1767. For generations, each of Kunta's enslaved descendants passed down an oral history of Kunta's experiences as a free tribesman in Gambia, along with the African words he taught them. Haley researched African village customs, slave-trading and the history of Blacks in America -- as well as made a personal visit to the griot (oral historian) of his ancestor's African village -- to produce this colorful rendering of his family's history from the mid-eighteenth century through the mid-twentieth century.

Plot summary

The action begins with the birth of Kunta Kinte in 1750 to a Mandinka tribesman in the tiny, Sub-Saharan village of Juffure, The Gambia. The author liberally uses many African words to describe the everyday life of this Muslim community, which sees young boys like Kunta being groomed to manhood with lessons of hunting, protecting their families, and subscribing to codes of honor under the strict supervision of village elders.

Several years later, Kunta hears vague talk about "toubob" (white people) who have been spotted in the jungles nearby. Tribesmen are disappearing from other villages, never to be seen again. At the age of 17, while Kunta is on sentry duty and looking for wood with which to fashion a drum, he is ambushed by four slave catchers. Although he fights back, he is no match for them, and is chained and hauled off to a ship for the beginning of a horrifying sea voyage.

Chained to each other and to their beds in the dark, dank hold, the slaves lie in their own excrement and become violently ill. Once or twice a week, the whites bring them up to the deck in chains in order to clean the hold. On one such occasion, the slaves, who have managed to communicate with each other despite the many different languages they speak, conspire to overthrow the whites. The revolt is quashed by the white sailors, but an outbreak of vomiting, fever, and diarrhea wipes out two-thirds of the Black captives and half of the whites. This attrition rate was typical for slave ships of the time. At a slave auction, Kunta is bought for $850 by John Waller of Spotsylvania County, Virginia. Given the name "Toby" and assigned to work as a field laborer on Massa Waller's plantation, Kunta proceeds to escape four times over the next four years and is punished, each time more severely. Unlike the American-born Blacks on the plantation, who have not been taught to read or write and are treated more like children than adults, Kunta can read, write, and speak fluent Arabic, and is angered by his forced enslavement. On his fourth escape attempt, slave catchers chop off half of Kunta's right foot so that he cannot escape anymore. Incensed by the attack, John Waller's brother, Dr. William Waller, buys Kunta from his brother and allows him to be nursed back to health by his "big house" cook, Bell. A warmhearted, American-born slave, Bell patiently nurtures a relationship with the tall, brooding African at the same time.

Kunta works for seven years as Dr. Waller's gardener before he finally plucks up the courage to ask Bell to marry him. She does, and the two have a baby at a rather advanced age. Kunta insists that the child be named Kizzy, an African name, rather than Mary, the name Bell would have preferred.

In Kizzy, Kunta invests all his efforts to remind his daughter that she is the scion of a proud, free people. He teaches her many African words and patiently repeats to her the story of his capture and sale, a story that she will pass down to his grandchildren and great-grandchild in turn.

At the age of six, Kizzy becomes good friends with Dr. Waller's niece, Missy -- to her parents' dismay. As time goes on, Kizzy grows less close to her parents and more attached to Missy, who treats her as her personal plaything. Through Missy, Kizzy also learns how to read. This proves to be her undoing, for ten years later, Kizzy falls in love with a male slave from the plantation. When she confides to him that she knows how to read and write, he implores her to forge papers for him so he can escape, and she does. The following day, soldiers who have caught, tortured and killed the runaway slave come to Dr. Waller’s plantation and wrench Kizzy away from her parents. She is dragged away to a slave auction, never to see her parents again.

Kizzy is auctioned off to a disreputable slave owner in North Carolina named Tom Lea. On Kizzy's first night at his plantation, her drunken master makes crude sexual advances to her. When she refuses to have sex with him, he brutally rapes her in the barn and then drops a quarter in a jar next to her bed as thanks for her services. He continues to abuse her several times a week, leaving her a coin each time, until she is five months pregnant. She gives birth to a son whom her master insists on giving a European name, not an African one. The baby is named George.

When George is born, Kizzy, who is only 17, is horrified to see that his skin is light-colored, not ebony black like her own. Her shame is intense. The other slaves at the Lea plantation advise her to forget about the father, although Massa Lea continues to visit her frequently at night. The continual abuse drives Kizzy to depression. But when Massa Lea finally leaves her alone two years later, Kizzy bonds to the other slaves and tends to her son as lovingly as she would a child born to her out of love rather than rape.

George is raised like a typical field hand. In his spare time, he enjoys hanging around the gamecock pen and Uncle Mingo, the gamecock raiser, who brings in a tidy sum for Massa Lea each year in cockfighting revenues. George instantly takes an attraction to the fighting roosters because of their noble stature. Later he becomes apprenticed to Uncle Mingo and proves himself a quick learner in feeding, capturing, cleaning, and fighting gamecocks, earning himself the nickname, "Chicken George."

After George starts full-time rooster duty, there is a noticeable improvement in Massa Lea’s winnings. Chicken George attends his first cockfight at the age of 15. As the years pass, he continues to go to tournaments and backyard fights, wins money, and saves it in order to buy freedom for himself and his family. He and Massa Lea become very close. Much of the time, Massa treats Chicken George like a partner, not as a slave, thanks to the latter's skill with the gamecocks.

At the age of 18, Chicken George encourages Massa Lea to buy a slave girl named Matilda so George can marry her. Matilda gives birth to a large family of eight children, whom she keeps together even after Chicken George is sent to England for six years after Massa Lea loses everything he has in a cockfight against an Englishman.

In the meantime, his eldest son, Tom, marries a half-Indian slave girl named Irene, who also gives birth to eight children. Their youngest child, Cynthia, is Alex Haley's grandmother.

Bolstered by Massa Lea's promise that he will receive his freedom when he returns, Chicken George does come back and gets his certificate of freedom, although he must escape to Canada to preserve it. After the American Civil War, Chicken George and his family are reunited and they move to Tennessee to start a new life as free men and women, continuing to share the stories that their great-ancestor Kunta Kinte had his daughter commit to memory so many years before.

Characters in "Roots"

Kunta Kinte – original protagonist: a young man of the Mandinka people, grows up in the Gambia before being captured and enslaved. Renamed "Toby"
John Waller – plantation owner who buys Kunta
Dr. William Waller – doctor of medicine and John's brother: buys Kunta off of him
Bell Waller – cook to the doctor who Kinte marries
Kizzy Waller– daughter of Kinte and Bell
"Missy" – Dr. Waller's niece
Tom Lea – slave owner in North Carolina to whom Kizzy is sold
George Lea – son to Kizzy and her brutal new owner, he is called "Chicken George"
Matilda – who George marries
Cynthia – one of George and Matilda's eight children

Literary significance & criticism

Haley's fame was marred, however, by charges of plagiarism. After one trial, in which he admitted that he copied large passages of Roots from The African by Harold Courlander, he was permitted to settle out-of-court for $650,000. In 1988, Margaret Walker also sued Haley, claiming that Roots violated the copyright for her novel Jubilee. That case was dismissed by the court.

Film, TV or theatrical adaptations

Roots was made into a hugely popular television miniseries that aired over eight consecutive nights in January 1977. ABC network television executives chose to "dump" the series into a string of airings rather than space out the broadcasts, because they were uncertain how the public would respond to the controversial, racially-charged themes of the show. However, the series garnered enormous ratings and became an overnight sensation. Approximately 130 million Americans tuned in at some time during the eight broadcasts. The concluding episode was rated as the third most watched telecast of all time by the Nielsen corporation.

The cast of the miniseries included LeVar Burton as Kunta Kinte, Leslie Uggams as Kizzy and Ben Vereen as Chicken George. A 14-hour sequel, Roots: The Next Generations, aired in 1979, featuring the leading African-American actors of the day. In 1988, a two-hour made-for-TV movie, Roots: The Gift, aired. Based on characters from the book, it starred LeVar Burton as Kunta Kinte and Kate Mulgrew as Hattie, the female leader of a group of slave catchers.

Awards and nominations

Haley earned a Pulitzer Prize special award in 1977 for his book, and the television miniseries garnered many awards, including nine Emmys and a Peabody.

Release details

1976, USA, Doubleday Books (ISBN 0385037872), Pub date 12 September 1976, hardback (First edition)
1977, UK, Hutchinson (ISBN 0091296803), Pub date ? April 1977, hardback
1978, UK, Picador (ISBN 0330253018), Pub date 14 April 1978, paperback
1980, USA, Bantam Books (ISBN 0685014053), Pub date ? November 1980, paperback (Teacher's guide)
1982, UK, GK Hall (ISBN 0816166390), Pub date ? December 1982, hardback
1985, USA, Vintage (ISBN 0099522004), Pub date ? May 1985, paperback
1992, USA, Bantam Doubleday Dell (ISBN 0440174643), Pub date 31 December 1992, paperback
1994, USA, Vintage (ISBN 0099362813), Pub date 21 January 1994, paperback
1999, USA, Rebound by Sagebrush (ISBN 0808511033), Pub date ? October 1999, hardback (Library edition)
2000, USA, Wings (ISBN 0517208601), Pub date ? September 2000, hardback
2006, USA, Buccaneer Books (ISBN 1568494718), Pub date 30 August 2006, hardback

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