Burl Ives

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.

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.

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.

On Christmas Eve 1770, a young African warrior, who three years prior had been captured and sold into slavery in America, leads a desperate group of runaway slaves as they attempt to reach freedom in the North. Based on the characters from the novel Roots by Alex Haley.

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.

Despite a violent rebellion, the slave ship Lord Ligonier completes its voyage and Kunta Kinte endures the indiginity of an Annapolis slave auction.

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.

12-year-old Alex Haley (JOHN) learns his family history from grandfather Will Palmer (SHAW). Simon Haley (HAREWOOD) lands a professorship at an Alabama college where he works with the local rural sharecroppers, helping them increase production, in addition to his classroom work. Bertha (CARA) learns she has an illness.

Alex Haley (JONES) is now a successful magazine writer; his latest assignment: an interview with Malcolm X. He later goes on to write The Autobiography of Malcolm X. After the black leader's assassination, Haley sets out to discover his own "roots" and launches a twelve-year search, which culminates with his visit to a small African village.

Tom Harvey's daughter, Cynthia (BANFIELD) falls in love with Will Palmer (SHAW) a railroad worker who soon lands a job at the lumber company. Tensions meanwhile mount in Henning as the white community seeks to strip the blacks of their rights. Will's friend Lee Garnet (MOSLEY) is lynched after accompanying Tom (BROWN) when he fails in his attempt to register to vote.

Tom Harvey (BROWN) assumes the leadership of the black community in Henning, Tennessee from his aging father, Chicken George (LONG). Tom establishes a school but trouble brews when Col. Warner's (FONDA) son, Jim (THOMAS) falls in love with the black schoolteacher, Carrie (HAUSER). Tom meanwhile faces a crisis in his own family when his daughter Elizabeth (MORGAN) falls in love with a light-skinned negro who he considers "too white" for her to marry.