Roots: The Complete Miniseries

His name was Kunta Kinte. Kidnapped from Africa and enslaved in America in 1767, he refused to accept his slave name of Toby. Heirs kept his heroic defiance alive, whispering the name of Kunta Kinte from one generation to the next until it reached a young boy growing up in Tennessee. His name was Alex Haley. And he proclaimed Kunta Kinte's name to the world.

Despite a violent rebellion, the slave ship Lord Ligonier completes its voyage and Kunta Kinte endures the indiginity of an Annapolis slave auction. Fiddler, the slave in charge of Kunta's training, becomes his only friend--a friendship that's tested when Kunta plans an escape so he can be with Fanta.

In 1776, a nation fights for freedom...but not for all. Kunta Kinte escapes again and is crippled by slave catchers. He marries, gains a daughter and loses his long-time friend Fiddler. Another chance for escape arises, but Kunta sacrifices it to care for his wife and the newborn he names Kizzy, an African word for "stay put."

At age 16, Kizzy is sold and bears her new master's son, who grows up to become fun-loving Chicken George. Yearning to see her parents, Kizzy is comforted by Samuel Bennett, but they are ill-matched. When she returns to her birthplace, Kizzy learns of her parents' fates.

Chicken George is sent to England as payment for his owner's gambling debt. Fourteen years later, he returns home a free man, a status that has a profound effect on the family begun by Kunta Kinte. The Civil War erupts; at last the era of slavery draws to an end.

The Civil War is over but night riders terrorize ex-slaves. By marking his clients' horseshoes, Tom identifies the raiders but endangers his own life. Chicken George, who fought for the Union, rejoins his family. He leads them to a new home in Tennessee.

With a growing family and a successful cock-fighting career, Chicken George's world is suddenly turned upside down when paranoia sets in around the county after a renegade slave named Nat Turner goes on a killing spree. George's luck then takes a turn for the worse when his owner loses a large bet and must give George up to be a cock trainer in England to repay the debt. George eventually returns to America 14 years later as a free man and finds that not only have his sons married and started families, but a Civil War is looming, threatening the livelihood of the south, and forcing him to leave home again in order to remain free.

In the dramatic conclusion of the miniseries, the Civil War has ended with the surrender of the south and freedom for the slaves. However the economically devastated plantations still have a need for workers, but few have the money to pay wages for what was once done for free. Thus the system of sharecropping is born, eventually trapping Tom and his family in a life of perpetual labor. Added to this burden are vicious "night riders" who burn and pillage plantations at night, terrorizing the newly freed slaves and further hindering their ability to farm and pay off their debts. But in the midst of a seemingly never-ending cycle of despair, Chicken George returns, announcing his purchase of land in Tennessee, and devising a plan that would allow them all to safely leave their sharecropping plantation in Virginia, and settle as free men and women on their own land.