(THEME SONG PLAYING)
NARRATOR: Last on Roots...
Master made me head trainer today.
That nice.
I'm gonna make a name for myself. Get me some respect.
I'm gonna pick them birds until I can buy myself free.
You are gonna stay here and fight my chickens.
It don't matter how much I saves to buy myself.
You're my nigger, George.
Can't you get that through your thick skull?
It got through that time.
-It be the worst sin there is! -Killing Master Tom Moore?
That's no more than killing a dog. Now, move.
No, damn it, no!
He's your daddy!
MR. MOORE: Don't know about you, George,
but I want to win that money and be champion.
The Speckled Red wins,
I'll set you free.
Master Moore's Speckled Red will be the winner!
(CROWD CHEERING)
REFEREE: The bird of Sir Eric Russell is the winner!
(CROWD CHEERING)
Perhaps we could resolve your indebtedness
in some mutually satisfactory fashion.
England.
We can call things square if he can have you over there.
He says for just a few years, George, to train somebody else.
No, I don't want no crying. None of y'all.
I'm your husband, your pappy, and I'm telling you, now.
(CHUCKLES) A few years! That's no time at all.
Be back! You'll see.
Glory hallelujah. He's back.
-Excuse me, missy. -What y'all want?
-Am I near the Harvey plantation? -(SCOFFS) Nearly there already.
Do you know the Harvey family?
Oh, my! Oh, my!
(GIGGLING)
What are you giggling at, girl?
I'm giggling at you, Chicken George!
My Tom don't talk about nothing excepting his daddy.
Tom?
My son, Tom?
And my man, Tom.
Then, you...
-You my Tom's woman? -(CHUCKLES)
I'm called Irene, sir.
Irene.
Well then, let's see you.
(BOTH LAUGHING)
I see my boy studied me well.
He picked himself a fine woman.
Oh, my.
Well, they told me that you was a handsome man,
but they didn't say how grand you are.
(CHUCKLES) Oh, I...
I ain't nothing special.
-Yes, I am. -(BOTH LAUGHING)
And now,
where's my boy?
I'll take you to him.
Tom?
What is it, honey?
Man wants his horse shoed, Tom.
Well, he gonna have to get back. I'm powerful busy.
Well, I don't know, Tom. He don't look like the getting-back kind.
Daddy?
It's my daddy!
Ease up.
(CHUCKLES) You about to crush my ribs.
Ain't you something to see?
You're grown about as big as a bull!
There ain't a patch on you.
Daddy, you come back in style.
Tom, where your mama?
She back in our cabin, near the chicken coop.
Then I'll see you later.
Ooh! (LAUGHING)
Hey, little one. You all right?
MATHILDA: Here, chickie, chickie, chickie.
Here, chickie, chickie, chickie.
Here, chickie, chickie, chickie, chickie, chickie, chickie.
Here, chickie, chickie. Here...
Sometimes,
I feared I would never see you again, husband.
There ain't nothing this side of hell could've kept me away, Tildy.
My heart's beating so fast, about to fly all to pieces.
Tildy, honey.
I is free.
Massa Moore gave me my papers.
-(LAUGHING) -George.
First he said he'd never said no such thing.
Then he said, I ought to stay on and, "Help your daddy," he said.
(LAUGHING)
I told him I didn't have no daddy.
You ought to see him. Old, stinking of corn.
The plantation's gone all to the seed.
Mama Kizzy.
I know.
Massa Moore told me she died last spring.
You was her joy.
Oh, girl,
I missed you sorely.
(ALL LAUGHING)
If you take all the houses
in all of Alamance County,
they still wouldn't be as big as that place where that old king lived.
(ALL LAUGHING)
He calls it a "castle."
-(LAUGHTER) -Oh!
All right, y'all get now. Me and Daddy going into town for supplies. Go on.
Ooh!
I want to hear another one of them stories about the grand old folks in England.
There be time for storytelling. You got chores to do, Lewis.
You too, Virgil.
-Especially you, Bud. -(ALL LAUGHING)
I'm so glad to be home.
And I sure do love my first grandson!
-(ALL LAUGHING) (KISSES)
Here, take this boy.
Come on, come on.
TOM: Here you go, Daddy. Let me give you a hand.
Hey, what's going on here?
Massa Harvey, this here's my daddy.
Well, I've heard a lot about you, Chicken George.
Howdy do, sir.
Looks like your family's mighty glad to see you.
Yeah.
SAM: You still over at the Moore place, George?
My daddy's a free man, Massa Harvey. Massa Moore give him his papers.
Is that a fact?
Well, you're welcome to stay here if you've a mind to work, George.
Why, thank you, sir. I appreciate it.
(ALL LAUGHING)
All right, let's go on out of here, now.
-Bye! -Drive careful.
Just do what you gotta do and get on back. I expect you before sunset.
-Good morning, Tom. -Good morning, Massa.
I see folks regard you, kind of highly, Tom.
Guess they likes me well enough.
Ain't too many blacksmiths in the county.
MAN: Nigger!
Yes, Massa Brent?
Coming, boss.
I'm coming.
Yes, sir?
Can't you see I'm thirsty, boy?
Yes, sir, Massa Brent.
Let this run nice and cold for you.
My little brother's thirsty, too.
-Yes, sir, powerful hot-- -Uh, not you.
This old buck here.
The name's George Moore, sir.
I don't care what your name is, slave.
You just fill me this dipper mighty quick.
I ain't no slave, Mr. Brent.
No, sir, I ain't.
This here my daddy, Massa Brent. He a free man.
Ah.
-Let's see your papers, free man. -You want me to whup him, Evan?
You daft, Jemmy?
You can't go around whipping free men like they was just niggers.
Come here.
-You staying on at the Harvey place? -Harvey say I could stay.
Do he, now?
He do.
Sam Harvey ought to know better than that.
What you mean?
We got a law here, Mr. Free Man.
You stay in this state more than 60 days,
you get to be plain nigger again.
(BOTH CACKLING)
EVAN: Did you see the look on that nigger's face?
-(CONTINUES CACKLING) -He's gonna be a plain nigger again.
MATHILDA: Tom was so proud the way you stood up to Evan Brent.
Showed him what a black man could be.
Maybe I showed him wrong.
Better learn how to keep his head down in the dirt.
'Cause he raise it up, they sure find ways to smack it back down.
(OWL HOOTING)
Tildy.
I can't leave you. I can't.
I knows, honey.
I knows how you feel.
But you the first, George.
The first in this family not to be a slave.
I remember you telling me about your grandpa.
They had to cut off old Kunta's foot to keep him from escaping.
You can't turn your back on him.
And you can't steal the hope of freedom from your own children.
Then you want me to go?
Listen to me.
My man.
My beautiful man.
I got to stop myself from getting down on my knees and begging you to stay.
It's so lonely when you was away.
I like to dried up and died.
Tildy.
You decide.
I'm married to a free man, George Moore.
I ain't about to live with no slave ever again.
War! It's war, boys!
Our boys just attacked Fort Sumter this morning! It's war!
Long live the Confederacy! It's war, boys! It's war!
(ALL CHEERING)
Well, this is what we've been waiting for, huh, boys?
-ALL: Yeah! (GUNSHOTS)
MAN: Yes, sir.
Are we gonna whup them Yankees?
-ALL: Yeah! (GUNSHOTS)
No, no, no.
I said, are we gonna whup them Yankees?
(CROWD CHEERING)
(GUNSHOT)
(ALL SINGING "DIXIE")
Yokes!
-Tallyho! -(ALL LAUGHING)
Yokes!
Tallyho!
(LAUGHING)
What they yell, Granddaddy?
Yokes.
Tallyho!
(LAUGHING)
I guess that means,
"Watch out, little fox. We after your hide."
(LAUGHS)
Well, it's time your Granddaddy got back out into the world.
I done told all the stories I got to tell, and I gotta go find me some more.
(LAUGHS)
Virgil.
-Y'all be good boys, you hear? -Okay, Daddy.
Okay.
Somewhere,
somebody's saying,
"If I only had a trainer like Chicken George."
(LAUGHS)
I don't know where it is,
and I don't know how far away.
It don't matter.
‘Cause I'm coming back for you, wife.
Don't you never give up on me.
First slave, he weren't always a slave.
Before he was a slave, he a free man
in Africa.
And he was called Kunta Kinte.
But one day, he went to the jungle to fetch some wood to make a drum.
There, the slavers, they catch him,
and they sold him into slavery.
Then they chop off half his foot so he couldn't run away.
TOM: And Kunta Kinte had a daughter.
Kizzy.
And he teach her some words he brung from Africa.
He teach her Kamby Bolongo.
Mean a river. He teach her ko, mean a fiddle.
And she remembered, and she teach her own son.
And the son of Kizzy
was the man folks call Chicken George.
And he raised hisself from slavery
and became a free man.
My daddy.
Why ain't that platoon shoed up, yet?
I is doing my best, captain.
-My troop's tied down till you finish. -I gets them ready, sir.
You better be quick. Army don't like you working for it
any more than you like working for us.
The faster you get finished, the sooner you go back to your massa.
Yes, sir.
(CRASH)
Get out of my way!
What's going on here?
There was a white boy, captain.
Trying to steal some food.
Massa, I swears there was a white boy in here stealing.
I don't see no boy.
Any of you see a white boy?
All I see is a full-grown darkie with his hands full of stolen grub.
What's the matter, nigger? Ain't we been feeding you sufficient slops?
Captain, sir, I swears to God.
Evan?
I think you hit it right on the head. It's a fact.
We ain't been feeding this nigger proper.
You is skinny. Is he skinny? Why, look at them ribs.
Now, look at that rib poking out right there. See that rib, Evan?
Why don't you just tuck it in for him?
(GRUNTS)
Nigger, why, you ain't nothing
but skin and bones.
(GRUNTS)
(KNOCKING ON DOOR)
Excuse me, ma'am.
Please? Maybe y'all got some scraps I could eat?
Poor child.
Come oniin.
Much obliged, ma'am.
Sit right down here while I fix you something.
Thank you.
I ain't no beggar, ma'am.
Been working a small patch of land in South Carolina,
me and my wife, Martha.
Then the fighting started, and we had to get...
The war ruined the crops, and everything was so bad, even the rabbits left.
Since then, it's been nothing but walking and asking folks for food.
And you takes it too when you gets the chance, ain't that true, boy?
Come back here! I said come back here!
Tom, what in the world is going on here?
This here thieving boy
earned me my cracked ribs you wrapped up so pretty.
I was just hungry.
Finish your plate.
I been hungry in my time, too.
Go on.
Well, what's your name, son?
George, ma'am. George Johnson.
Well, we already got one George,
and you So young.
I reckon we'll just have to call you "OI' George."
(BOTH LAUGHING)
Eat up, Ol' George.
You reckon you got enough for another helping, ma'am?
You reckon you got belly enough for another helping?
It's not for me. It's for my wife, Martha.
Your wife with you?
Yes, sir.
Outside.
Martha, come on.
Come on, honey, it's all right.
It's all right.
This is Martha.
Pleased to meet you.
Well, I couldn't let you work in the fields. That wouldn't do.
-Maybe you could be an overseer. -Sure, I could do that, sir.
I couldn't pay you much. Just good food
and a place big enough for you and your wife to sleep.
Oh, that fine with me, sir. Mighty fine.
Good. I'd like to see you get started right away, then.
Thanks, sir. Much obliged.
Well, I is the overseer.
Well, ain't that fine?
Yeah, I reckon it'll go all right except...
Except what?
Tom, what exactly is an overseer?
-You fooling me? -No, sir.
Then you is the most ignorant white boy I ever did see.
Ain't there no slaves where you come from?
Not hardly.
It's mostly poor white people like me.
-Lewis? -Yeah, Tom?
Gonna learn OI' George here about overseeing.
Huh?
Why should we? I mean, white folks make enough trouble for us as it is.
If OI' George don't be overseer,
maybe massa find someone who knows how to do it.
Who likes doing it.
Now, you being the overseer, first thing you need is a whip.
Can't be no overseer without no whip. Supposing this here your whip.
And suppose, you want this here slave
to fetch yonder bucket of water.
How you gonna get him to fetch you that bucket?
Go on, go on, show me.
Excuse me, Lewis.
Y'all mind fetching me that bucket of water?
(BOTH LAUGHING)
That ain't exactly how you goes about it.
Now, you watch me. Hmm? Watch me good.
I'm gonna show you how you talks to slaves.
Nigger!
Yes, sir?
Come fetch me this bucket of water.
Oh, Massa! Ask some other nigger. I is powerful tired.
Tired, is you, you black trash?
LEWIS: Yes, sir.
Well, maybe this here is going to perk you up a little.
Oh, no, sir, massa. Don't. Please don't whip my poor black body!
-Is you tired? -No, sir.
I is feeling right lively. See how lively I is, massa?
See, massa?
Please, massa. Please, please don't whip me.
I'll be good.
You watching and learning, boy?
No. I couldn't do that. I couldn't whup Lewis.
I don't want you to whup him, either.
You gotta makes it like you got a mind to whup him if you wants to.
No! I likes Lewis.
Like him or don't like him, you're the overseer, he the slave.
Can't never forget that.
Are you teaching me to be mean, Tom?
I'm teaching you how to stay alive and how to keep some skin on our backs.
Don't you ever call me "sir" again. Do you hear?
Yeah.
Massa.
Nigger.
(HORSES NEIGHING)
EVAN: They're wearing us down, Sam. They're wearing us down.
We been fighting as well as in the good years.
But they just got too much of everything.
We kill off a company,
seems like they send down five companies to take their place.
We capture a cannon. They ship a new battery.
My brother's right. We just gotta hold on long enough to turn this thing about.
Sam.
We need everybody to rally around the Confederacy.
And I don't mean just moral support.
Well, we'll give all the help we can, of course, Evan.
Frankly, we're out of cash.
But, of course, I'll give all the horses and food I can spare.
The Confederacy can have my silver service, Sam.
Lila.
Lila, are you sure you want to do that?
You know what that service means to you.
Confederacy's entitled to anything we have.
Mathilda, come with me.
Tom, Irene, somebody, hurry. It's me.
(PANTING)
It's Martha, she's gonna have the baby, hurry!
Well, I'll go get Mathilda. Don't worry.
What should I do?
Ol' George, it looks like you already done it.
Tom,
what keeping that baby?
Ain't no particular time for a baby to be birthed, OI' George.
Well, maybe I just ought to go in there.
Why don't you let Mathilda and Irene look after her?
There ain't nothing they don't know about birthing.
Give us a smoke of your pipe, Tom.
Thank you.
Your Martha's fine, Georgie.
She's sleeping now.
I ain't heard no baby cry.
Martha's a young girl.
She got plenty of time for more babies.
I ain't no preacher,
but I'd like to say something.
This here little baby,
we don't know what he might have been,
but we knows one thing.
If he like his daddy,
he'd a growed to be a good man.
-MEN: Amen. -MATHILDA: Amen.
You's all my friends.
You's the only friends I ever did know in all my life.
You's like my family.
Martha and me, we thanks you.
(SINGING JOHNNY CASH SONG "I'M BOUND FOR THE PROMISED LAND")
MAN: Tom.
Tom.
Who that?
It's me, Jemmy Brent.
What you doing here?
We're whupped, Tom. The South is finished.
Evan and them other patriots can go on fighting if they like,
but I'm gonna get out with my whole skin while I got a chance.
You got to help me, Tom.
Why should I help you?
I know, Tom, I know.
You're grieved at me, and you got a right.
But hard times are coming, Tom. For white folks and blacks alike.
We got to learn a new way of getting along together.
Isn't this just as good a time as any to start?
What you want me to do?
If I stay in uniform, Tom, there's a good chance they'll catch me,
and they're hard on deserters.
Now, here's the key to my place, to Company Shops.
I got some regular clothes in there.
Fetch them for me.
Tom.
I knew I could count on you, Tom. I knew it.
I'll wait right here for you. Right here.
Trust has got to start somewhere, Tom.
Let it be here and now. Let it be us that does it.
I wouldn't blame you if you don't go, Tom.
But I'll never forget if you do.
Nigger.
Tom?
What are you doing still here?
Where's Tom?
What'd you done?
Well.
You sweet thing.
Oh, no, Massa.
Oh, no.
I'm not gonna do you no harm. I wouldn't hurt you.
No!
I just want a little kiss.
Tom.
You brought my clothes. That's good, Tom.
Tom. Honey, it don't matter.
Now, Tom. There ain't no harm done. Just having a little fun.
Makes no difference between you and me.
I believed you.
I wanted it so to be true.
I believed you.
I got no more time for jawing.
Hand me them clothes, and I'll be on my way.
I do believe you are looking for a whipping.
No.
You ain't gonna do nothing to me.
Now, how you figures that?
'Cause I ain't gonna let you, Jemmy Brent.
(CHUCKLES)
Ain't you now?
Ain't you?
No. No, Tom.
You're one dead nigger.
(IRENE EXCLAIMS)
Tom!
Oh!
I'm going to have to kill you, boy.
(HORSE WHINNYING)
Help me!
God darn it, help me.
Listen to me, Jemmy Brent. Listen to me.
Take this message with you to hell.
The last hands that touched you on this Earth
was my black hands.
Him or me.
(WHIMPERING)
It was him or me.
(BREATHING HEAVILY)
(CHICKENS CLUCKING)
(NEIGHING)
Now, Captain Brent's brother has been missing for three days.
Any of you all seen Jemmy Brent, speak up.
Now, some of you must have seen my brother.
They found his horse no more than a mile from here.
(DOG BARKING)
Damn niggers. They wouldn't help none if they could.
Ha!
Where'd you get them lumps, boy?
Gots me kicked by a plow horse, Massa.
That's mighty curious.
You being a blacksmith, you ought to know better.
Yes, sir. Gots to watch out for the animals.
Even a plow horse kick out when he paining enough.
Any animal that pains that much should be put out of its misery.
You ain't seen the last of me, nigger.
-(NEIGHS) -Hal
Ha! Ha!
Freedom!
NARRATOR: Next, the two-hour conclusion of Roots.
The war is over. Slavery's no more!
NARRATOR: For 10 hours, you've lived their struggle.
To your cabins, everybody. Quick!
NARRATOR: Shared their pain, their joy, their triumph.
We ain't gonna never get away from here.
NARRATOR: And next, the fulfillment of a dream.
If you bother me or mine ever again,
I'll kill you.
NARRATOR: The final triumph of an American family, the conclusion of Roots.
(THEME MUSIC PLAYING)
English - SDH