Roots: The Saga of an American Family

Kizzy becomes pregnant, and Lea assaults her less frequently. When Kizzy gives birth in 1806, Malizy tells her that multiracial children are becoming increasingly common. Lea names the child George and rapes Kizzy again, despite Kizzy telling him that she has not healed from giving birth. After Lea leaves, Kizzy thinks about her proud African father, wishing she could have named her child Kunta or Kinte, and resolves to make sure that George knows he is the grandson of a proud African man.

Kizzy brings George to the field while she works, and Pompey makes George small shelters. Pompey tells Kizzy that he knew George’s namesake, the first enslaved man that Lea purchased, whom Lea worked to death. Lea still comes to Kizzy’s cabin at night to assault her. When George is 15 months old, he begins wandering around while they work in the field. Pompey tells stories about different animals, much like the stories Kunta used to tell. Sarah calls Kizzy into her cabin one day and offers to tell Kizzy’s fortune, predicting that Kizzy will never see Kunta, Bell, or Noah again.

At three years old, George starts helping around the plantation. George often irritates Kizzy with persistent questioning, mostly about his father. Eventually, Kizzy decides to tell George about Kunta and Africa. She tells him some Mandinka words, knowing that Kunta would be happy to know that his grandson is learning some of the African culture Kunta shared with her.

At six years old, George starts working in the field and helping Kizzy around the house. After a preacher visits Lea and gives a sermon for the Black people, George—who has a talent for mimicry—imitates the preacher for Lea, who starts giving George jobs in the main house. Soon, George spends little time in the field and becomes a source of news for the other enslaved people. In 1818, George reports that the American Colonization Society plans to send free Black people to Liberia, in West Africa. George reveals that he is already planning to tell his children all about his African grandfather. George starts helping Mingo take care of the gamecocks. Sarah predicts that George will be an extraordinary man.

Lea decides that George, now 12, needs to live near where Mingo trains the roosters. When George tells Kizzy about the move, she angrily reveals that Lea is his father. Mingo shows him how to feed, clean, and train the birds, and George misses the holidays to prepare for fighting season.

George grows closer to Lea and Mingo and loves the roosters. When the big fighting meet arrives, George, now 14, joins Lea and Mingo, and he is amazed by the huge groups of white men, both rich and poor. George is sad and proud when an injured rooster wins a fight.

Four years into George’s apprenticeship, he has developed a reputation as an up-and-coming gamecock trainer. George visits Kizzy, Malizy, Sarah, and Pompey for the first half of each Sunday. George talks to his birds, but Mingo notes that he sometimes forgets the birds’ wild nature and criticizes George for crying when his birds lose in the ring. Mingo notices George sneaking away from the plantation some nights. George met a girl named Charity in town with Lea, and he is sneaking off to see her. Mingo warns him not to get caught.

One Sunday, Kizzy tells George to go back to Mingo’s chicken area, because a free Black man named Denmark Vesey almost started an uprising and white people have begun rallying. Mingo tells George that he cannot visit Charity, and George laments that he has two girlfriends, Charity and Beulah.

George presents an idea to train the birds’ wings to fly higher than their opponents. Mingo and Lea agree, and their birds get more wins. Lea tells George to be careful when he visits Charity, as Charity has been sleeping with another Black man. George resolves to focus on Beulah and another girl, Ophelia, who lives at Jewett’s plantation.

Mingo suggests to Lea that George could start fighting Lea’s rejected birds in hackfights, or smaller competitions. Lea sponsors $20 for Mingo and George to bet in hackfights. In George’s first fight, his bird loses, and he retreats in tears. Mingo fights the second bird, winning back the money, as well as $2 extra. George wins his next fights. Lea accompanies George and Mingo to a hackfight. Jewett, another enslaver and gamecock trainer, tries to buy George for $4,000, but Lea rejects the offer. Lea decides to bring George to the next main competition, leaving Mingo behind.

Lea tells George that he grew up in a poor white family with 10 siblings. At age 11, Lea left home and labored to buy some land and the first George. Lea claims that he works harder than enslaved people, but George tries to explain that Kizzy, Sarah, Malizy, Pompey, Mingo, and himself are all hard-working. Lea wants to know about George’s sex life and jokes that he could use George as a “stud,” renting George to other plantations to have sex with the enslaved women. Lea offers to write George a travel pass to avoid complications with patrols when he goes out at night, and George tells Lea about Matilda, an enslaved woman at MacGregor’s plantation who won’t have sex with him, as she is religious. Lea decides to talk to MacGregor about buying Matilda.

In 1827, George, now called Chicken George, marries Matilda at MacGregor’s plantation. When they arrive, many of Matilda’s guests are suspicious of George, who is flamboyant and drunk. George drinks a lot, falling asleep in the wagon home. Kizzy, Malizy, Sarah, and Pompey ignore his apologies, but Matilda forgives him when she sees her wedding gifts: a large grandfather clock and a mirror.

George is often away from home, and Matilda sets up a Sunday prayer group with Kizzy, Malizy, Sarah, and Pompey. In 1828, Matilda gives birth to her first son, Virgil, and George misses his birth. George tells Virgil about Kunta. Kizzy tells Matilda about Waller’s plantation, Bell, and Kunta. Matilda frequently reads from a Bible. When George returns from competitions, he brings money for savings and gifts for everyone. Kizzy confronts George about sneaking away at night. In 1830, George misses the birth of his second son, Ashford. George shares the news about Andrew Jackson’s presidency. He reports that thousands of enslaved people are being sold to the Deep South, and he tells Ashford about Kunta.

After Matilda confronts George about sneaking out, George spends more time at home. In 1831, Matilda gives birth to their third son, George, and everyone gathers to hear the senior George tell his son about Kunta. The same year, Lea and George are driving home after a competition when they hear about Nat Turner’s revolt. Lea drives home angry, grabs his shotgun, and forces everyone to empty their cabins. He checks their belongings for weapons, smashing Matilda’s grandfather clock and scattering or breaking everyone’s possessions. He takes George’s and Mingo’s tools and announces he will be sleeping with his shotgun.

Lea plans to take George to New Orleans for a large competition. George looks forward to music, dancing, and women in New Orleans, knowing that Lea is looking forward to the same. Matilda gives birth to a fourth son, and Lea asks George to name him Tom. George agrees, noting that he and Lea have grown close since the uprising, but Kizzy and Matilda are reluctant. George storms off for five days. When he returns, Matilda and Kizzy are excited to see him and ask him to tell his new son about Kunta Kinte. George gathers everyone by the fireplace, and Virgil, now five, interrupts and tells the remainder of Kunta’s story.

George and Lea retrieve the custom carriage Lea had made for their trip to New Orleans. When they return, Mingo is dead from a stroke. George is distraught and spends the rest of the day and night down in the chicken area. He realizes that he knew little about Mingo and regrets that Mingo felt like George was replacing him. Lea comes the next day, and they burn Mingo’s cabin. Lea decides that they should not go to New Orleans.

George decides to teach Virgil how to tend to the chickens, but Virgil does not show any interest in the birds. Thinking about Mingo and the birds, George starts to wonder what it means to be owned or free. When he calls out a particularly impressive bird in the fields one day, he decides to let it stay in the field with the hens as a free rooster.

George brings news about Osceola, a Seminole chief that raided a US Army troop to rescue his wife, as well as the conflicts between Mexico and the US, the success of General Santa Anna, and the Trail of Tears. Between 1835 and 1837, Matilda has three more children: sons James and Lewis, and a daughter named Kizzy. George tells Matilda that he wants to save to buy their freedom. They calculate that George would need $6,800 to buy freedom for himself, Matilda, Kizzy, and eight children, assuming Matilda has another child. George says that Lea is looking to settle down, and they fantasize about living in the northern states.

George asks Lea to allow Tom, his fourth son, to apprentice under a Black blacksmith named Isaiah at Askew’s plantation. Lea complies after consulting with Malizy. Virgil is now 19 and recently married, spending his weekends at his wife’s plantation, while Ashford, James, and Lewis work in the fields, along with George’s daughters, Kizzy and Mary. L’il George, the third son, works with George and the chickens, but he hates it.

Tom returns to visit Lea’s plantation for Thanksgiving, relaying the change in presidents from Polk to Taylor as well as the growing popularity of Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth. He also reports that the telegraph was invented by Morse, and Harriet Tubman has a bounty of $40,000 due to moving Black people north via the Underground Railroad. George tells Tom about his and Matilda’s plan to buy the family’s freedom. George confesses that they only have about $1,000 saved, but he is hoping that Tom’s blacksmithing can help.

In 1855, Jewett invites an Englishman, Sir Russell, to hold a massive chicken-fighting competition, pitting 20 of Jewett’s birds and 20 of Russell’s against 40 birds from around the area. The prize for the whole competition is $30,000, and Lea stakes $5,000, while George gives the $2,000 he, Matilda, and Tom have saved. After George confesses that he wants to buy his family’s freedom, Lea agrees that if they win, he will free the entire family. Lea is pitted against Russell, and Lea accepts a side wager of $20,000 despite not having the money. Lea’s bird wins the fight, but Russell offers to carry the wager, doubling it, to the next fight, which Lea loses. Lea tells George that he cannot pay the money he owes Russell, but Russell offered an alternative solution: George will go to England to train a replacement for Russell’s gamecock trainer, and when he returns, Lea will free him.