Last on Roots:
Sold. Your name, sir?
John Reynolds, Spotsylvania County, Virginia.
Your massa give you a new name. Massa say you name Toby.
Kunta! Kunta Kinte!
Hey, Toby! Look what I got from the kitchen.
I got...
Chains ain't right for a nigger, Fiddler.
Kunta never forget you.
Helped Kunta be free.
What it like to be free African?
You're going to learn to answer to your name!
- What's your name? - Kunta Kinte.
What's your name?
My name...
...is Toby.
Hey, Toby.
Dip of water, Toby?
No.
You sure?
Here.
Well, when you feel the need...
...you know where to come.
Some things even an African nigger can't do without.
Nigger.
You, nigger. I'm talking to you.
Get somebody...
...to load the crate on the wagon.
You may be as dumb as hog fat...
...but you're as strong as an ox.
Nigger.
Keep loading.
You, big buck! There's two more wagons to load.
I want to get started for market before dark.
Oh, Toby. You work very hard for this boss man.
It'll be two days.
I'll bring you back fit, fed and all in one piece.
No, sir. Can't be done.
No one can guarantee he'll be coming back.
He's got runaway blood in him.
I have to use the whip so much, it's a wonder he's got hide left.
Too much spirit for his own good.
- I don't want no trouble. - Toby be good nigger for massa.
Don't send Toby away. Toby be good field hand. Good field hand.
It's all right, Toby.
You be a good field hand, you can stay here.
Toby stay. Toby stay. Toby be good now.
Toby be real good.
- You work real hard now. - Toby be good field hand.
Squire John, this is the finest harvest celebration...
...in Virginia history.
May well be, Miss Constable. The tobacco crop's the finest ever.
The festivities should be in keeping.
My brother, William, has cause to celebrate.
Cash from this crop will pay what I owe him.
Every last pound, shilling, penny and farthing of it.
And to meet your brother socially is indeed a rare treat.
A young lady has to be not well...
...to be awarded the pleasure of Dr. Reynolds' company.
If I weren't the only physician in town, I'd have time for society.
I suspect that if Providence hadn't taken my brother's good wife...
...and make him single...
...there'd be less illness among the ladies.
Squire Reynolds, you are a caution!
Niggers don't put enough toddy to wet the glass or quench the thirst.
Excuse me, my dear, I'll correct the condition.
I'll join you, John. Anne, Miss Constable.
I didn't want to discuss your debt in front of Miss Constable.
- Family finance ought to be private. - True. True, that's very true.
But since you raised the subject...
...my practice takes time away from property management.
I need more field hands if I hope for profit.
I have to have cash for that. I need the money you owe me.
Distrustful of your own brother?
Distrustful of the amount you drink and what it does.
So be it. I drink too much and you worry too much.
And we'll both meet our Maker too soon as a result.
I'll be much happier when I arrive.
Ah, Miss Constable. Here you are.
Is Miss Constable your patient?
With the Hippocratic oath and accidents of birth...
...it's a hectic life I lead.
You mustn't be too harsh on John. Don't forget that he's your brother.
What I mustn't forget is that he's your husband.
Toby? I'm all set to play to the hoedown.
Wanna come hear me?
Toby?
What you doing?
When you gonna quit that?
White folks don't like that kind of praying.
Sooner or later, you gonna have to forget that African stuff.
Make white folks mad and scare niggers.
- Fiddler scared? - Sure, I'm scared.
Scared of snakes and lung fever and white folks.
Hope I ain't being too hard on the snakes and lung fever.
Papa, don't worry. Toby be good nigger for massa.
Sure. That make me laugh, all right.
I figure you got something in your head when you do that.
Hey, what you got in your head?
- What's this? - A safo.
Some kind of charm?
You see this? Rooster feather. This bring Kunta spirit.
Hair from horse make Kunta strong.
Bird bone, that bring me luck.
Why you need all that?
I ask you why you need all this? How come, Toby?
The last wagon going out this afternoon.
They all be drunk. Kunta be free.
No!
When a nigger run off, they be meaner than ever to the rest of us.
- They won't do nothing bad to you. - You gonna try again, huh?
I remember when you got me moved. I slept in the barn in the winter.
That ain't nothing like when they catch you...
- lf they catch me. - Toby...
Kunta, there ain't no way to beat the law.
The law gets read in white churches.
Niggers can't carry no guns or sticks.
20 lashes if you get caught with no traveling pass.
- Ten... - lf you look them in the eye.
30 if you raise your hand to them! You lie, they cut your ears off!
I know the law, Fiddler!
Then you ought to know there ain't no way to beat it!
White folks live by it. And niggers die by it.
Maybe this time I'll make it to the Calvert plantation.
Maybe I will find Fanta. But it don't matter.
Since they take me from my home and bring me here...
...the only time I be free is when I run away.
Sometime it seem like being alone and being free...
...is all the same for a slave.
You don't be free.
You be dead.
Then I be free.
Fiddler? Fiddler!
That be Luther. Calling me to the hoedown.
I gonna celebrate the harvest.
I'm gonna play a hoedown like you never heard played before.
Them niggers be stomping and yelling...
...and laughing and slapping their knees...
...so ain't nobody gonna see nothing.
Not even them wagons leaving for the market.
But I really be celebrating seeing the last of one dumb African nigger.
Fiddler.
Goodbye, Fiddler.
I hope it be a good goodbye...
...Kunta.
Hope it be something.
Listen to them. Mr. Reynolds is too soft on niggers.
Enjoying themselves while a white man's got to work.
Doesn't seem right that I gotta drive all night on the worst roads, neither.
Sorry I couldn't let you a nigger to help offload it.
I don't let niggers off the plantation.
This way they don't know which way is east or west.
If I let one go to the tobacco market, he'll know where that is.
Then he'll figure out where someplace else is.
Next thing, he'll know which way to the north.
I understand, but it would've been nice to have a strong buck...
...to help me offload.
Good evening, sir. Come on, Ted.
George, this is Calvert's plantation.
The end of the next crossing.
I say we owe our rumps a rest.
I want that slave back, Mr. Grill.
Yes, sir, Mr. Reynolds, but how do you want him back?
- Alive is one fee, dead's another. - Frankly, I'd prefer him dead.
Killing a runaway slave is easy enough, squire.
It don't make as good an example.
- Plus you lose your investment. - That's true enough.
He cost me 155 pounds. He's worth a lot more now.
You wanna make sure he stays put this time.
Mr. Trumbull's right. You let him get away...
...and every nigger on your place will be gone.
Do what you have to do.
You'll find me a fair man with money.
Yes, sir. We know what to do.
- Well, we best be underway, squire. - Good day.
You want me to go with them?
Yes, I want you to go with them, Mr. Ames.
But I don't think I'd like you to come back.
- I warned you about Toby. - You did.
- I warned you many times! - Indeed!
You forgot to warn Toby.
It's your job, your responsibility. He made a fool of you.
You be off my property...
...by nightfall, Mr. Ames.
Ain't nothing a nigger can do...
...that don't make Massa Calvert's plantation better.
All right now, old fox...
...or weasel.
Or whatever you is...
...you better get on out of here.
Here, now...
...whatever hungry animal you is...
...you better get out before sunup.
Oh, nigger. Nigger!
This the Calvert plantation?
You got one African girl around here named Fanta?
Her name Maggie.
Now you go to the barn and stay put.
I never seen you.
Remember that when they catch you.
I never seen you.
Fanta, here.
Fanta.
What they do to you?
Everything.
I don't understand that African talk no more.
Say it plain in English so I understand what you're saying.
What you mean, say it plain in English?
I put all that African talk clean out of my head.
I don't talk it. I don't even think it no more.
- Fanta... - No.
Maggie. It's the name they give me.
It's what I go by. Maggie.
What name they give you?
Toby.
It's a better name than some I heard about.
Take how we think.
Take how we call each other.
Damn!
The white man don't leave us nothing!
I am young Massa Calvert's bed wench.
Any children come out of me supposed to be his, supposed to be brown.
I can touch you so you feel better...
...but we can't be with each other like we want.
White man don't even leave us, us.
Fanta.
I want you now.
I need you.
If the sun's on this side, we're heading north. That where freedom be.
Say yes, Fanta. I can't stay here much longer.
- How far? - Don't know. It don't matter.
We just keep going till we reach north.
Please, come with me.
- What you gonna do once you get there? - I'll find a job, make money.
What job you gonna get? What white man's work you know how to do?
They ain't got no tobacco. They ain't got no cotton.
They ain't got nothing up north for a nigger to pick.
Come with me now, Fanta.
Maybe we can get away from this place together. Maybe back to our home.
Been a long time.
My father, Omoro, close to 50 now.
Grandma Nyo Boto, she'll be 68 if she's still living.
My baby brother, finished with manhood...
You talking crazy.
We can make it!
Now I told you! My name is Maggie!
A clear win!
Two legs on you, judge. Or more?
10 pounds, that was the wager. Pay up.
Don't want me saying you don't pay your debts.
10 pounds, coin of the realm. You'd do as a tax collector, Thomas.
You've no objection to us taking our ease at your trough?
No, no. Drink your fill.
- Looks like you've come a long way. - That we have, sir.
Chasing a runaway. Seen any nigger that might fit the bill?
You know no toubob can make it through the woods like Mandinka!
We stay away from people, we can make it to the north and be free!
- Maybe we can find more runaways... - No!
No, now I'm here! And I'm gonna stay here!
- Stay a slave? - I'm gonna stay alive!
I'm gonna stay warm instead of cold. Fed instead of starved.
I'm gonna stay.
I'll do what they say long as I suck breath.
A dead nigger ain't help nobody. Not a dead nigger!
- You can't mean it... - Hush! I mean it!
I mean every word. Get out of here and leave me be.
It's daylight. Get out!
- Let me talk with you, woman! - Please, no! No!
I don't want to hear it! This is where I is!
This is where I'm gonna stay, long as...
Maggie, who's in there with you?
- You know that nigger? - I never saw him before.
Trumbull, that's him!
Damn nigger!
Oh, you'll live, but fixed so you'll never run again.
Or...
No!
Well, the lad's made his choice.
Toby.
Fanta!
It's delirium.
Fanta.
- That foot is still festered. - Yes, sir.
Slave catchers!
They're worse than animals. Cruel just for the pleasure.
And stupid. One swipe of the ax and they ruin a valuable piece of property.
Well, I never thought this boy would linger for...
- What is it, three weeks? - Yes, sir.
Nothing more to be done, except wait for the fever to break or to kill him.
I'll tend him. I made a poultice. Elderberry leaves and sulfur.
It can't do any harm.
I sent that mulatto girl Genelva to fetch me muslin rags to pack him with.
Fanta.
Luther has to drive me to Janesburg.
Pox and British chain shot are killing the troops.
Mr. Harlan.
If this boy dies before I get back, shroud and bury him.
Get Cassius and Hannibal to start digging a grave.
Lord knows what sickness he has. Understand?
I understand. I'll take care of it.
Slave catchers. Castrating butchers.
What're you doing here?
I was worried about Toby.
We was friends back when we belonged to your brother.
I'm a patient man so I'll tell you one more time.
I own you. You, Toby, Genelva, all of you.
- I thought you'd understand. - Massa, we understand.
A crippled field hand, a mulatto wench and an old fiddle player.
- Fine way my brother paid his debts. - That's the truth.
Mr. Harlan, find something for this mulatto girl to do.
I know Genelva since your brother.
She's no good for the fields. You don't need her inside.
Only thing she's good for is breeding.
Yes. The babies might be worth something.
You'll have no truck with her. You're too old.
We'll find a young buck to breed her with.
Yes, massa.
Bell told you to go fetch. Get to it.
- Luther, we're late for Janesburg. - Massa doctor, Toby?
I've no idea if he'll live. If he dies, he'll have himself to blame.
I don't hold with what they did to him.
But a slave who runs off doesn't warrant any prizes.
Luther.
You ain't gonna die.
Bell ain't gonna let you die.
You alive!
Ain't that fine?
- Slave catchers. - That's right.
We figured they catch you, maybe they kill you.
But you ain't.
But look what they do to me, Fiddler.
Look what they did to me.
What kind of man would do that to another man? What kind?
Why didn't they just kill me?
Why they don't just kill me?
Maybe they did.
Toby.
We at Dr. William now. We belong to him.
We ain't at the squire's no more.
How come?
Massa Reynolds couldn't get his price for the tobacco.
So, you see, the money that he owed to Dr. William...
We the money he owed. That's how he paid it off. With us.
Tell me now, Fiddler.
What kind of massa this new man?
He's the best, that's what he be.
I been his cook for years. He's a good massa.
She's the one see you through the fever. Almost a month.
I'm Bell.
He figure because he got half a foot, he ain't a whole man.
Well, you can tell your friend, Toby...
...half a foot don't make a man no less...
...unless, of course, he want to be.
There's something for him over by the stove.
If he wants to eat from now on...
...he can walk on over to my kitchen door.
You can't run no more.
You tried. More than most.
You can't run no more. That's all there is to it.
If I can't find a way to run...
...then I just lay here and die.
I just lay here and die.
These for you.
Massa says I doesn't do no sparking with Luther.
He say we can't even talk.
I heard. Massa means what he says.
He catch you around Luther, you'll be sold quick.
Ain't that way with us, Bell. We loves one another.
Luther's real gentle with me.
He ain't like them young bucks. They just wanna push and shove.
But Luther, he likes me just to talk to.
- Sometimes we just... - Still, massa's got his rules.
We just see to it he don't catch us.
Then you just looking for trouble.
You talk like a woman don't care about men.
Oh, I care, honey. I just haven't found a man I wanted in 10 years.
What about Toby?
Oh, Toby, that fool runaway nigger.
What makes you think I care about him?
The way you been fretting whether he live or die. Whether he walk or not.
Ain't acting like a woman don't care nothing for a man.
Maybe it's been so long since you seen a man you wanted...
...you just done forgot what it feel like.
You're a smart gal, Genelva.
Keep an eye on them loaves. Don't make them burn.
I see you found the crutches.
Here's a pair of massa's old boot. He gave them to me.
I ain't gonna need no boots again. Never.
I stuffed the toe so's the boot'll fit snug.
If it ain't right, I'll pull some stuffing out or put more in.
No!
I seen that ugly stump already! Don't be foolish!
Don't you know nothing? Don't you understand?
I ain't gonna need no boots again, because I ain't gonna walk again!
Well, you throw them out then. Because I ain't gonna.
Fiddler say you come from Africa. Say you always bragging.
Don't brag. Ain't no need to brag.
Fiddler say even when you ain't talking, you proud.
Real proud about being an African.
Yeah, I'm Mandinka. I'm Mandinka fighting man.
You surely are some brave Mandinka fighting man, Toby.
- What you fighting now? - Shut your mouth!
I don't see why I have to do that. I can say anything I want.
And you sure can't do nothing about it, can you?
Fighting man.
I think you gonna make it.
Lord be praised, Toby. You gonna walk!
Woman, I done told you, my name ain't no Toby.
I am Kunta Kinte, son of Omoro and Binta Kinte!
A fighting man from the village of Juffure!
I gonna do better than learn to walk.
I gonna learn to run!
Damn it!
I gonna learn to run.
Genelva.
- What you doing here? - I's come to see you, Toby.
You ain't never talking to no one. Thought you might need coaxing.
Harlan been looking for you.
He looking in the wrong place. He think I'm looking to old Luther.
He don't know nothing about what a gal really wants.
What you talking about?
I ain't talking about nothing, Toby.
I done all the talking I'm gonna do tonight.
See, talking don't do nothing that feels good.
Doing...
...that's what makes me feel good.
Luther.
I been looking all over for you. What you doing out?
Felt the need. I was in the outback house.
Not with Genelva? Don't you lie to me.
No. She don't care beans about me.
I'm too old, she says.
Toby's got her scratching and howling.
Toby?
Gimp foot and all.
Guess you don't limp in bed, do you?
One thing solved, Genelva.
Good to know I won't have to waste my time...
...keeping an eye on you and Luther no more.
You get on back to your cabin for now.
I'll ask Dr. Reynolds to see if it's all right...
...for you and Toby to make the beast.
You're one lucky nigger, Toby.
One lucky nigger.
Here them melons you want. Come noontime, they still be cool.
- You really don't care none? - About what?
Every no-account nigger on this place is snickering and laughing at you.
They say Genelva teased you into horsing into bed with her.
Helping her and Luther to trick Mr. Harlan so they could skip off.
Was you horsing in the bed with her, is that so?
Could be.
You think she pretty?
Oh, I expect she pretty enough, but...
...me, I likes a different kind of face.
What kind?
Kind of face you got, Bell.
That Mandinka face.
Mandinka?
What you talking about? I ain't no African.
I'm Mandinka. We a proud people.
And I'm American!
I was born here. My mammy and my daddy was born here.
And I ain't no African.
Bad time all around.
Genelva running off. No more sense than a mealyworm.
Luther too. Old fool.
Make massa mighty angry. Got no driver.
Just a bad day. On top of all that, you call me an African.
I won't do it again, Bell. Never!
Toby!
Toby?
You think Toby would be a good driver for me now that Luther's run off?
Please, massa.
It's strange times, Bell. We're fighting the British.
I heard about that.
Nearly two years. Now the British are offering freedom...
...to slaves who'll join their army and fight.
Toby driving, he'd be gone from the plantation overnight, even for days.
A great temptation for a certain kind of slave.
One with runaway blood.
- You see the connection? - Yes, sir.
Well, that's good.
- It just seems funny, though. - What seems funny?
You trust Luther, and he run off on you.
You don't trust Toby none, and he loves you...
...better than anybody else on this whole place.
It just seems funny.
Bell, how sure are you?
Oh, I wouldn't be talking, massa, if I wasn't sure...
Get out. You win, Bell.
But he better not run off. He damn well better not run off.
Driver! Ain't that a bang, now.
- Oh, I expect it's good enough. - You expect? Is that all?
Fiddler, how come Bell talk the doctor into this?
I don't know. Ask Bell. Maybe she like you.
I don't want nobody liking me!
You'll get your wish talking like that.
This is the land of the toubob. I'm Mandinka warrior!
I can't walk with these people and talk with them.
Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord!
Horse.
I hear tell that you ain't a horse.
I hear tell that you think you a mighty crow.
I hear tell that you fly...
...from here all the way to Annapolis and back again.
Well, horse, you look mighty like a horse to me.
You sure smell mighty like a horse. I'm saying...
...that you is a horse.
What you think you is don't matter a damn bit.
That Mandinka talk don't matter a damn bit, neither.
You give it up. Let it go. You is a nigger, Toby.
Plain old nigger, is all.
Massa Reynolds is waiting. Let's go.
Well, what?
- You told Bell you could drive? - I can drive.
You better drive this horse fast and quick.
- How come? - Barn door is still closed.
I'll go fetch Master Reynolds.
You look fine way up there like that.
Why, Bell? Why you do this for me?
I see you crippling by the vegetable garden. You don't like that.
You with your runaway blood.
Driving, you'll be all over the country.
You'll get your fill of wandering and won't think about escaping.
You're a good woman, Bell.
I told massa I'd be responsible for you. You wouldn't run off.
You promise?
Africans!
Americans!
- Toby, pull off to the side for a bit. - Yes, sir.
Whoa, boy. Whoa.
- I'm going for a walk. - Yes, sir.
You wait here.
- I'll be back shortly. - Yes, sir. I'll be right here.
- How's little Anne? - She's more like you every day.
- She has your eyes, you know. - No, no. You have my eyes.
Oh, God, you feel so good.
Hold me close. Closer.
- You know what I dreamed last night? - No.
Last night I dreamed...
...I wanted to be a darkie.
Why on earth would you want to be that?
So an overseer could come fetch me for you. So an overseer could say:
"Here's a comely wench, Dr. William. Do you want her?
If you want her, here she be for you.
Here she be."
And then I could run away.
But only so you could come after me.
Would you like that?
I never see white folks carry on so.
They're so happy, they can't believe it.
They keep saying, "The British has surrendered.
The war is over. Freedom is won!"
Ain't that just fine, though. White folks be free.
I been tossing at night about their freedom.
Been the mostest thing on my mind. Sure is one happy nigger now.
Don't have to worry about the poor white folks no more.
You funning, Fiddler.
You best not let them catch you doing it.
Mammy Bell?
Missy Anne!
Uncle said I get cookies.
You sure can, honey. Mammy Bell will let you have anything you want.
Little angel. Doctor loves her like she was his own.
Well, maybe she is, the way I heard it.
That's gossip. That ain't the doctor's child. That's John Reynolds' child.
Ain't no proving that kind of foolish talk.
It's just nigger gossip.
I got to drive early.
I like driving.
Everybody's got to get up early, Fiddler.
He was thanking you.
He was just saying why he had to get to bed early. Good night.
Good night, Bell.
Well, what's this?
That's for you.
What's it for?
It's for grinding corn in.
Where's the part to grind the corn with?
Well...
I thought I'd bring that by your cabin tonight.
Well, I usually eats my supper around about sunset.
I usually cooks way too much.
Then I bring the grinding part by tonight.
I made corn bread.
- I like corn bread. - You like chicken and dumplings?
I do.
And there's a stew made with peanuts and yams with butter.
We had them in Africa. I liked them.
We can eat now if you want to. Or we can sit and talk.
That be fine.
Which one be fine? Eating or talking?
Whatever you wanna do.
Massa just sit in his study and do his papers all day.
They going to the Emmett plantation for the Thanksgiving celebration.
Fiddler say massa's gonna take him to play. You probably drive them.
That's right.
The white folks...
...gonna choose General George Washington for president.
I heard that.
Corn bread.
What you say?
What you made me to grind the corn with.
First time in 22 years since I been on this plantation...
...any man ever made something for me.
I made something for you too.
That be fine.
That be right fine.
Ain't seen you after dinner much lately. Turning in early?
Driving's hard work, huh?
Hard. That's right, hard work.
- I found out something last night. - What?
Why Luther cry when him and Genelva got sold to different places.
How come, you think?
Wasn't strong enough. He didn't want to be by himself no more.
- Think a man by himself is strong? - I do.
- Tell you what I think. - What?
I think you the biggest fool I ever saw.
Why, because I wanna be strong?
Nothing makes a white massa happier...
...than seeing a nigger all by himself.
Ain't no bigger battle he can win than keeping niggers apart.
Strong and stubborn ain't nowhere near the same. Nowhere near.
You giving the white folks the biggest victory ever.
I ain't never gonna be no Christian man.
I know that.
- Won't never eat pig meat. - I know.
I expect sometime I ain't easy to be with.
I know you ain't.
Now, I'm asking y'all here...
...to pray for this union that God done made.
And pray that they stays together.
And that they don't do nothing, nothing...
...to get themselves sold away from one another.
And pray that they have good healthy young'uns.
You sure y'all wanna get married?
- I does. - I does.
Then in the eyes of Jesus...
...jump over the broom into the land of matrimony.
Now that you bought the cow, Toby, you can get all the milk you want!
Toby?
How come you left the wedding? It's yours too. You jumped the broom too.
I was thinking about my village and family...
I'm so happy I don't wanna hear that African talk.
You're not Kunta Kinte. You're Toby. You belong to me.
And I belong to you.
And we both belong to Dr. Reynolds.
- Dr. Reynolds. - Emmett.
- I'm so glad you could come. - My pleasure.
I think you'll find some friends.
Seems like all I done all my life...
...is wait to jump when the white folks call.
Fiddler? Fiddler, you all right?
Of course not. But it don't matter none.
Know what would happen if I died in the middle of fiddling a hoedown?
The white folks would be mad as all get out...
...because the fiddling had stopped.
Don't be talking the old ways. It only makes trouble.
- Is you Mandinka? - Mine are the Akan people.
The white folks, they give me the name Pompey.
But my real name is Boteng Bediako.
They calls me Toby. My name is Kunta Kinte.
I heard of a village named Jenay Kinte once.
That's my father's brother. That's his own village!
Never forget those things, Kunta Kinte.
We got to remember the old ways and pass them on to the children.
I feel sorry for blacks born here. They don't know who they is.
They from Africa, yet they ain't.
They from the white folks' land and they ain't.
It seems to me like...
...there's a tribe of strange new people that is lost.
They got no remembering of old ways...
...to help them, to tell them who they are.
The most ways I want to be helped is back to my own land.
You talking escape?
But they catch niggers and send them back.
Not if you smart. Not if you got a plan that will get you north...
...to the people they call Abolitionists. They hides niggers.
And then they makes them free.
And when the time come, I'm heading north.
- You will go alone? - Unless you wants to come with me.
I ain't never wanted nothing more in my life. Nothing!
You listen for the signal.
When you hear that, follow the sound of the drum. Come as quick as you can.
When I hear it, I will come quick as I can.
This drummer, he gonna send a message...
...by drum.
- We get north, to freedom... - Stop that!
Don't you wanna be free?
Stop all that African talk about drums and all that stuff.
- The drummer said if... - He don't know. I know.
I never tell nobody this before. Not nobody here.
Before I come here...
...I was on another plantation. You ain't my first man.
The first was when I was just a girl.
We wasn't married Christian. Massa didn't believe in Jesus for niggers.
I loved that man. His name was Ben.
We had two little baby girls.
One night he run off. I helped him.
He was gonna get free.
And then fetch me and the babies.
And we all be free.
But they catched him.
They catched him and they hanged him.
And they sold off my...
They sold off my babies.
Never seen those sweet babies...
...for the rest of my whole life.
You keep talking about Africa and getting free...
...and something terrible is gonna happen.
One more terrible thing happen in my life, and I just die.
I just die.
Bell...
...why you tell me this now?
Why?
Well, Toby...
...she had a hard time.
Bell's not a young woman. But she's all right.
And you have a beautiful young daughter.
- Go see her now. - Yes, sir.
Oh, Fiddler.
Go on!
Toby, look.
Ain't she pretty?
Got a name for her already. Just the right name.
- We gonna call her Kizzy. - Kizzy?
In Mandinka talk it means, "She stay put."
She never be took from you.
Just you rest easy.
Massa Reynolds gonna wanna know where we get the name Kizzy.
He gonna wanna know whether it's a Christian name.
I don't know what to tell him. I don't know much about this lying.
It come easy after a time.
Being around white folks make it so.
Say it's a family name. Bell's side.
He believe that, you think?
Pretty, ain't it? Shines like a baby's behind.
Yeah, he'll probably believe it.
Now, hush up.
"Probably." I can't take no chance on no "probably."
"Probably" is as good as it gets for a nigger, Kunta.
Now you make your peace with that.
Now if you wants to talk...
...you go right on ahead and talk. I can hear you.
Gonna play me some music.
Play me a song I wants to hear.
I'm tired of all the time playing white folks' song.
I got my own song to play.
I just got to name her Kizzy.
And when she grow up...
...I'll tell her what Kizzy really mean.
Tell her about her grandma and her grandpa...
...and the village back in Africa.
Tell her about her peoples back there...
...so she know she wasn't born to be no slave in the white folks' land.
Yeah, that's what I'll do, Fiddler.
Fiddler, what you think?
Fiddler?
Fiddler.
Now you know how it feel to be free, Fiddler.
Now you know what I always talking about.
Ain't free a fine way to be, Fiddler? Being free.
Ain't it a fine way to be?
How come?
It's the way I was named. And my father. And his father.
It's the way this child gonna be named.
She got to know about her peoples and their ways.
I the only one that can teach her the Mandinka way.
Proper naming of her, that the first place to start.
Make this child stand strong and tall.
You ain't never give up, is you?
Not for me. Not for nobody.
I love you, Bell. I ain't never love no one the way I love you.
Don't ask me to give this up.
Not unless you really want to hear my answer. Only answer I can give.
Kizzy!
Behold the only thing greater than yourself.
The drums.
What you gonna do? You ain't gonna leave, is you? This is your home.
No, it's not my home.
But this my child.
And we family.
Girl, your name is Kizzy.
From special people, baby Kizzy. Special.
You're gonna be a special kind of woman too.
Your name means "Stay put."
But it don't mean "Stay a slave." It won't never mean that!
You is the daughter of Kunta Kinte...
...of the village of Juffure, on the banks of the river Kamby Bolongo.
His father is the Mandinka warrior, Omoro. His mama is Binta.
The warrior Omoro was the son of the holy man Kairaba Kunta Kinte.
In the time of the 17th realm, Father Kunta Kinte...
Subtitles by SDI Media Group
[ENGLISH]