Original subtitles

Last on routes.

My breakfast bowl is empty now.

There are goats to be fed?

Yes, mother. Take care.

Yes, father, I will.

Captain Davies, your vessel, sir.

The Lord Ligonier? The same. She'll be seaworthy by the end of the month. We'll

be taking on slaves.

I see.

Welcome aboard.

There's no riverbank.

Where's the earth?

The earth is gone.

Captain, sir, it's time to look over the wenches.

I'm a Christian man and I command a Christian ship.

But, Captain, sir... I will not lead any man into sin.

Sin?

Fornication.

Will they come after us, our warriors?

No. There is no trail in the water. No trail to follow.

And we are alone.

Come in, Mr. Slater.

Just brought her as a belly warmer, sir.

Didn't figure it'd be any problem for a highborn Christian white man like you,

sir. Sleep well.

Oh.

So full.

Mr. Slater, I don't understand a syllable of their language, but I

believe I can guess what they're saying down there.

What might that be, sir?

They're telling us to sleep lightly, Mr.

Slater.

Thank you.

We will kill the white man, and we will go home. But we're different men.

We can't even talk to each other. We're different tribes.

Men chained together are brothers.

We are all one village.

We cannot speak the same words.

Listen, Mandinka.

Those who speak other words, words of the Wuluf, of the Suriri, the Fulani,

talk to the man chained to you.

Teach him your words.

Learn his.

We will be one village.

I'm Mandinka.

Do you understand, Mandinka?

Captain Davies, sir. A word with you?

Come in, Mr. Slater.

How did you pass the night, sir?

Rest fully, Mr. Slater.

Didn't mean to trouble you, sir, if you took bed.

Nothing. Nothing.

The ague fever.

It's lying at anchor in them damn plaguy African rivers, sir.

What is your concern, Mr.

Slater?

Is the wind shifting?

No, sir. It's fair across the stern quarter.

It's not trimming the sails that worries me, sir. I don't like that sound.

Sound?

I don't hear any sound.

Aye, Captain, that'd be the point.

There's a time after they sort of settle in and get the idea of the way things

goes. When they get to thinking, maybe three, four weeks longer, they'll be too

weak to raise trouble.

Until then, there's a danger of uprising.

Shack the linen foot.

Mark me, Captain. They're treacherous, murdering beasts.

Ah.

I cannot believe there's a serious risk of arising.

Well, it's been known, sir.

I mind the time I served in the king's frigate.

We come on a Baltimore-built slaver, its canvas shredded on the yard.

The blacks rose for sure, sir.

Wasn't a white man left alive.

We saw the bodies lashed to the ratlins.

We hanged them by the dozen, sir.

They was a dead loss to their owners, them niggers.

I... I take your point, Mr. Slater. I take your point.

Well, then, your orders, Captain.

Can you not strengthen your guard, Mr. Slater?

Aye, Captain.

Surely armed men in good health can restrain chained men in weakened

condition? As to that, Captain, I put my trust to another advantage.

You see, them heathens never been in this Dodge before, and we have.

We know all the tricks to the trade.

Well, you do, Mr. Slater. I'm sure you do. You may go.

Aye, Captain.

Would you need a belly warmer again this evening, Captain?

not understand.

What was that witch doing untied? Nothing, sir.

Nothing?

I'll have you passed under the keel, you scum.

We'll see if you say nothing when you come up your belly ripped on the

barnacles.

I never told you that, did I? Fanta!

A Mandinka maiden must have strength.

I'm no longer a Mandinka maiden.

is no God.

Allah the Merciful.

Allah the Compassionate.

Take this man to paradise.

Let him see Muhammad the Prophet.

Let him taste the joys of the faithful.

Captain Davies, please. All right, sir. This way, please.

Captain

Davies.

Forgive me, sir. I have been somewhat poorly.

Welcome aboard the Lord Ligonier.

Mr. Andrews, is it?

No, sir. John Carrington, your servant, sir.

Give me.

I have forgotten the natural effluvience of a slave ship when not filtered

through strong vinegar.

Gad, sir, I do not comprehend how you can abide it.

Custom, sir.

Custom and avarice.

Ah.

Yes, sir.

My instructions were that Mr.

Andrews represented the owner's interest.

No, sir, I am factor for Horace Andrews and Company.

Mr. Andrews is at present in Williamsburg in Virginia.

Public day, sir. The House of Burgesses is in session. And for those who have

the ear of the royal governor, land grants.

The chair, Mr. Carrington.

Right, thank you.

Did you have a good voyage, Captain?

My first officer is dead, ten seamen in the ship's buoy, more than a third of my

crew. Oh, well, God rest their souls.

But the lifeblood of commerce is goods, sir, goods.

How fares your cargo through the passage, Captain?

Three thousand elephant teeth have survived the voyage.

You are a pretty wit, sir, a pretty wit.

Elephant teeth, indeed.

One hundred forty Negroes were loaded aboard Lord Ligonier in the mouth of the

Gambia River.

Ah, loose pack.

Well? Of those, ninety-eight were alive when we made port.

Ninety-eight?

Oh, less than a third dead.

I have known slavers to make port with less than half surviving and still show

a handsome profit. My felicitations, Captain. How soon can I unload?

Directly we warp your vessel to the war.

I want you to secure for me flowers of sulfur to burn in the hold. I wish to

see my ship clean again.

Oh, naturally, sir. After all, you'll be carrying tobacco to London.

And in London, trade goods for the Guinea coast?

And then on to the Gambia River.

And more slaves.

Indeed, sir. Thus does heaven smile upon us, point to point in a golden triangle.

Tobacco, trade goods, slaves, tobacco, trade goods, and so on, ad infinitum.

All profit, sir, and none the loser for it.

Tell me, Mr. Carrington, do you ever wonder?

On what topic, sir? To what end?

as to whether or not we are just as much imprisoned as are those chained in the

hold below?

I do not follow your meaning, sir.

It sometimes feels that we do harm to ourselves by taking part

in this endeavor.

Harm?

What harm can there be in prosperity, sir? What harm is a full purse, I'd like

to know?

No.

No.

I doubt that you'd like to know, Mr. Carrington.

I doubt that either of us would truly like to know.

Would you be interested in coming to the auction, Captain?

I warrant you've never seen anything like it.

No, I am sure I have not, Mr. Carrington.

I do know that I am not interested in seeing it now... or ever.

Now, what have we here?

My God, I have a hard enough task mending three months on a slaver without

new whip wheels to salve.

Benchmarks again.

This fella's bones are showing through.

Is he festered? Not more than usual, sir.

Laudable pus.

Merely laudable pus.

Take me's worth of tar, and he'll be fit for your auction.

Tar!

on the 7th of October.

There is a horse race meet then, and I would take advantage of the attraction.

Hold them with oil then.

Flaxseed oil covers a multitude of skins, eh?

You give the wild-eyed ones a dose of laudanum, and the dull ones a dollop of

brandy, and may the buyer be well.

You sent for me, Mr. Carrington?

Oh, yes, sir.

Here is the text for an advertisement I wish to place.

Just imported in the ship Lord Ligonier, Captain Davies, from the River Gambier,

to be sold in Annapolis for cash or good bills of exchange on Wednesday, the 7th

of October next.

A cargo of choice, healthy slaves.

I'll put slaves in big tight, sir. Catches the eye.

Yes, yes. And I shall also...

Oh, and I shall want handbills, broadsides to pass out at the race

meeting. There's a bit of a poser, sir, broadsides.

How so, Master McElroy? These are busy times in the printing trade, sir,

especially handbills. It is politics, politics, politics, politics.

We have Burgess Patrick Henry's speech in the Virginia Colony, correspondence

from Boston. It is the new Townsend taxes, sir, more bothered than the old

Stamp Act in 65.

I am with Burgess Henry and the rest in my passion for liberty, but business,

sir, is business.

I will pay hard money in advance for my hand bills.

Is it the same, you think?

Is what the same?

The moon.

Is it the same we see in our land?

I do not think so.

Nothing here is the same.

The people, the food, the animals, the trees.

I do not see why the moon should be the same.

Good.

I would hate to think my mother and little brother can see that moon but

cannot see me.

Would make them seem closer, I think.

Being close and not touching?

Like eating and not swallowing.

We will beat them.

You'll see.

You can say those things.

A warrior is taught to say such things.

A warrior is taught to fight.

Your father would say that I am right.

And where is my father now?

No.

Since we were taken from our homes, I have learned another lesson.

What lesson?

I've learned to stay alive.

We were to meet here by the auction block.

Ah, there he is.

Up to now, I work my place myself.

But I cleared two new fields, and I reckon if I could find me a likely

nigger or two, I'd maybe put up a hog's head of tobacco besides the corn and the

beans. Crab cakes.

Crab cakes.

Crab cakes.

He only paid 20 pounds for the wench.

And... She was nearly four months showing.

And then, if she didn't take the pots and die, I told him, if he bought

a cow, at least he'd have the hide and tallow.

It gets them all greased up. Think they're trying to fool somebody.

Trying to grab any one of them niggers in there be like trying to pinch a

watermelon seed.

Squirt right on out from you.

Monster Reynolds might want one of them, maybe. I doubt it.

Come on.

Let's go see if there's any women with his purse, yeah?

When I was a lad, we had indentured bond servants.

Stout Cornishmen and Scotsmen.

Scourings of Newgate prison, they were.

Pickpockets and highwaymen.

Indeed, sir, indeed.

And if one of them runs away, you couldn't tell him from any other

Englishman. But take a black slave, sir.

By Harry, no matter how far they run, they're always black.

Summer prime looking, fiddler.

Oh, no, Maserano don't act like that.

Not regular, at least.

Sometime on Christmas or on his birthday.

But he don't buy with night wrestling in mind, see.

Go away!

Gentlemen, gentlemen.

Your attention, I beg.

As advertised, we have a fine cargo of choice, healthy slaves recently landed

by the Lord Ligonier, largely from the River Gambier.

They've made a fine passage and in prime, healthy condition.

We have spry young bucks, warranted sound of limb and tooth, tractable, free

of colics and heaves, and wenches.

Fine, strapping wenches of an age for breeding or field work.

Terms of trade, or cash, or good bills of exchange from gentlemen known to me

as Mr. Carrington. I'll ask that you bid quickly and that we have a rather large

inventory of likely servants to offer. Now, thank you, markers, if you'll get

the first fine batch up here.

Careful, careful!

We don't need more damaged goods now. All right, first lot, get them out, get

them out. The gentlemen are waiting. Out!

Come on, wench!

Clenches, gentlemen, first to whet your appetites, as it were.

Those desiring to inspect the items being offered for defects and blemishes,

please step forward at your pleasure.

Calling your attention to the first item being offered for sale.

Now, she's a fine black pearl indeed, gentlemen. She's in fine condition.

She made the entire trip above decks like a fine lady. You'll find no marks.

She's young, she's supple, she's strong.

Posture, boy, posture.

Use her to wash, to weave, to plow, to sow, what you will. Good investment,

gentlemen. Put her to it, and she'll raise you a fine litter of pickaninnies.

That's enough, that's enough.

But, as the whore said, turning from bottle to bed, enough of pleasure to

work.

It's time to proceed, gentlemen.

Time to stop the looking and start the bidding.

Who will offer me 100 pounds for this fine wench? Do I hear 100 pounds?

Do I hear 100 pounds? We'll start it at 50.

Oh, I have 50 over here. 50, 50, 50, 55, 55.

I've got 50, 55, 55, 65, 65, 60.

I've got a 60 over here. Who'll give me a 65? 65.

65.

Do I hear 70 over here? I'll take it. I got a 70, 70, 75.

I got a 70, 70. Who'll give me an 80? 80. 80 over here.

Who'll give me 80?

Give me 85. Give me 90.

90 over here.

90. Who'll give me 115?

Who'll start the... 115.

115 once.

Twice.

Sold. Sir Robert Calvert of Virginia.

115 pounds.

Very shrewd purchase, Sir Robert. My felicitations, sir.

My pleasure, sir.

And I anticipate she will be my pleasure, sir.

Now, calling your attention to the next item offered.

A wench sound of wind and body. We will see each other again, Fanta.

We will.

We will.

Good lines to that one.

Look at his eyes.

He's not even close to being broken.

Now, here's a likely looking hand, a prime young buck. Just picked from the

trees. Bright as a monkey.

Good bones, sinew.

Wanted free of defect.

Good teeth, good for Carolina rice.

Virginia tobaccy, Maryland corn.

Pull like an ox and carry like a mule.

Step up, see for yourself, gentlemen.

He's free of heaves, piles, French pox.

Young, biddable, fine-

I'm going to start the bidding at 150.

There's no need to waste time. He's the pick of the herd, gentlemen.

You won't find his like in these degenerate days.

Who'll give me 150?

All right.

125. Gentlemen, gentlemen, I sold a buck, half of this, for 200 guineas a

fortnight ago in Baltimore.

Now, who'll start me at 125?

125.

140, millimini, 140, 145.

140, millimini, 145, 140, 145, millimini, 140, 145, 145, 145. This fine

young buck, 145, millimini, will give me 150.

Millimini will give me 150, millimini, millimini, 145, 150.

150, Sir Robert.

155, 155, 155, 155, 155, 155.

Do I hear 160, Sir Robert?

Put this buck to the wench you just bought. Stock your plantation in

Virginia.

155, 155, 155, 155, 155,

160. 155, 155, 155, 155, 160.

155 once.

155, 155, 155, 155, 155. Twice.

155, 155, 155, 155, 155, 155.

Sold. Your name, sir?

Reynolds. John Reynolds.

Spotsylvania County, Virginia.

Spotsylvania County of Virginia, 155 pounds.

There you are, sir, your bill of sale, all sealed and legal, with the Lord

Townshend's damn stamp suffixed, intolerable.

Cost you 10 shillings to convey your own property to you.

Your Virginia hotheads have the truth of it. Damn parlous state our liberties the

Englishmen have fallen to and the Lords of Trade in London can interfere with

our own ordinary commerce.

Don't meddle in politics, Mr. Carrington.

I have enough trouble raising my tobacco.

Yes, sir. Well, there he is.

For ten shillings, I can throw in the manacles.

I think the collar and change would be sufficient.

No manacles.

Well, now, I'll have to give him a name.

Let's see.

Do you fancy the classic, sir?

It is all the fashion here on the bay to have Psyches and Caesars and Hectors

running about the place. A whole pantheon of nymphs and satyrs. A

delightful conceit. I like good, plain, solid English names for my servants.

Fiddler, do we have a George?

Yes, sir. There's Sookie's George.

Born last plant in time.

Well, then.

Toby.

Yes. His name shall be Toby.

Oh, and Mr.

Carrington. Sir, you're not dealing with a child, sir.

I do not take your meaning, sir. My meaning is to be found in that carbuncle

on Black Toby's back over there.

I expect it to be Lance before he's loaded onto my wagon.

I hadn't noticed it before, sir.

Probably because it was covered with pine tar somehow.

I shall fetch the doctor right away, sir.

Why don't you make no trouble now?

Ain't going to hurt you.

You just stay quiet now.

You belongs to Marcel Reynolds now. That's all there is to it.

You ain't no more in Africa, guinea man.

Now, you listen to old Fiddler if he wants to keep it live.

You in America now.

Hear me talking, nigga?

You in America.

Oh, poor African boy.

You don't know what I be saying no how, huh?

Get him! Get him!

Gentlemen.

Pardon me, gentlemen.

Now, hold still.

Hold still now.

Hold on now.

Get yourself over there.

That's it.

Yeah, stay put now.

Damn it, I say hold still.

You got no brains at all?

You do what I say or it's gonna go hard with you.

You move once more and old Philly's gonna reach in and pull you behind out

through your nose.

Marshal Reynolds, you positive sure this old horse couldn't make it back to home

without a shoe?

A beast is property, Fiddler.

A wise man takes very good care of his horses and slaves if he wishes to

prosper. Never thought about it like that.

It's a smart way for sure.

That's how come you never hear no runaways off in your place?

You know what Mr. Ames says. He says it's because of the whip.

Well, now, Mr. Ames, he's a different sort of man here.

Fiddler? Yes, sir?

Pick up the mallet.

and put it in the toolbox.

Give me, man, what you got in your head.

What you thinking about?

Want me to give him a stripe or two, boss?

No, I don't think so.

Might be a problem.

He's always looking around.

He never relax.

Fiddler? Yes?

You recall, you were the one who told me that he was the best one at the lot. You

do recall that, don't you?

Did I say that?

Oh, you did.

I don't rightly recollect saying... I'm saying that from now on, that black is

your responsibility.

If he acts up in any way, I'll hold you responsible. You take my meaning,

Fiddler?

Oh, you mean, I... I guess to turn this here guinea man into a proper field

hand? Is that what you're talking about? A proper field hand who speaks and

understands the king's English and does exactly as he's told.

As a matter of fact, I'll give you six months until my birthday for you to

accomplish that.

Master Reynolds, I don't quite know how to thank you.

You sure know how to make my days happy, Master Reynolds. Yes, sir, your pleasure

for sure.

Do as I say, fiddler.

All the thanks I expect from any of my niggers.

I love you, Master Reynolds.

I'm riding ahead, two Campbells in, get me a tank of the mail.

You catch up with me just as soon as that horse is shooed. Master.

You gonna leave me a paper saying that you give permission for old Fiddler to

be out here with this here guinea man? Because if any white folks come by and

see us out here by themselves, they'll just libel up and take us for runaways.

Oh, yes, yes, yes. So they would, wouldn't they?

So I wouldn't take too much time shoeing that horse if I were you.

Yes, sir.

Wouldn't take too long shoeing that horse if I were you.

Wouldn't take too long. I'd right enough say it wouldn't take too long.

You hear him, master?

Toby Guinea Man?

Hear him tell old Fiddler about making you into some righteous sort of field

hand?

Lord, you don't even know your name.

First lesson.

You Toby, and I's Fiddler.

And I'll rip your black hide if you don't do what I say.

You don't know where you're going.

You don't know about pouring no tobacco.

You don't know about no Mr. Ames with no whip.

You don't know how to talk either. Get on up in there.

Now, you on a wagon.

This is a wagon.

You say wagon.

You say, Wagon.

Wagon.

Good, guinea man.

Now, master give you a new name, too.

Master say, you name Toby.

That's who you is, yeah?

Toby.

I's Fiddler.

Fiddler. Fiddler. Because I plays for the Christmas and the Jubilee.

Sarah's Fiddler. That's me. Now, you say, Toby.

Kunta. Kunta Kinte.

Oh, no, that's your African name. Musta give you a new name. Musta say, you name

Toby. Say, what's the matter with you? Turn me loose.

Kunta Kinte.

You Africans is all alike.

Crazy.

Musta say, you name is Toby. That's who you is.

He own you. He can do anything he want with you. There ain't nothing you can do

about it.

stretching and scrambling most of my days to get where I got.

Now, I eats in the big house kitchen. I got pine boards on the floor of my

cabin.

And it don't take much coughing for the master to make me have a cup of corn

whiskey for my medicine.

Now, that is fine living for a nigger, and I'll be damned if any African Guinea

man is gonna make me lose all I've been working for. Now, you take my meaning.

He don't speak the Kangs' English, Fiddler.

You better learn.

You Toby, you best learn or you gonna get the bloody back for sure.

And me too, maybe.

Get out there!

Hello, sweetheart. Papa, what did you bring me?

Papa!

Get on up.

Say, Fiddler, what did you bring us? Hold on. Hold on now. I'll be right

there. Let me get down.

Now, I done stole a whole sugar load from the white folks' table at night.

Just now you equals up and shares it around now, hear?

John, what about my music? Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Wait a minute.

One at a time.

I have surprises for all of my ladies.

However, there are no stays.

And no music from London. And no ribbons.

John, why ever not?

It's politics. Just damn politics. That's all it is.

John, you're right. Well, it's the truth. The merchants will not import

British products as a protest of the duties on glass and tea and the likes.

Oh, John, it's ever so unfair to the girls. However, I do have some stays.

And I do have some ribbons.

And I do have some music printed in Boston.

Right over here.

Everybody gonna get some. Now, come here. Let me show you something.

This here is a Guinea man to Africa.

They catch him running through the woods in Guinea.

Marshall Reynolds brought him right off the ship.

Now, you keep away from him now, because he'll wire Africa.

Oh, yeah, he'll bobcat for sure.

Now, some of you ain't never seen no African niggers before, so you just

listen to old Fiddler now.

This here guinea man don't know English, Tom.

So I'll be the one teaching him what it is he got to know.

Come on, boy.

Huh? Come on.

Yeah, just play.

John, it's fantastic. I just can't wait to play.

Welcome back home, Mr. Reynolds.

Good to see you, son. Oh, Haynes.

Would you excuse this, my dear? I have some words with Mr. Haynes.

Some brandy might help cut the dust.

A new fall to show you, sir.

Ah, good, good.

I have something to tell you, too.

What's tobacco, sir?

Six pounds a hundredweight on the water.

About a shillin'. Aye.

These are hard times for small farmers.

Oh, I have some new seed for the spring planting.

Cotton.

Egyptian, long staple.

Came highly recommended by Mr. Wiley.

Easy for them to say.

We have slaves to spare to clean the cotton.

I'll stick to the back.

Well, you may be right, but that would dry the small field for cotton. An

experiment.

As you say, sir. You know best.

Also, I bought a can at auction.

Slick from the ship? Yes.

I'll put him in the box as a half-hand.

A half-hand?

He's a strong one.

17, 18-year-old by the look of the teeth.

Surely he's a full hand, Mr. Ames.

Mr. Reynolds, I've had experience with niggers fresh from the trees.

And you can't get no more work for them than a wench. Seven, eight months

pregnant.

That's why I'll put him down as half a hand till I got him broke.

Of course, you may be right, Mr. Ames.

All the same.

I've set Fiddler to do the breaking.

Fiddler? Aye.

Sir, there's a craft to breaking a wild nigger, same as a horse.

One horse don't break another.

Fiddler will be in charge of that nigger until I say otherwise.

As I said, sir,

you know best.

Mr. Ames, when it's time for gelding, make certain my daughters are not about.

Hey, African.

The riddle is coming.

Hey, you.

Toby.

Bring your vittles.

Here.

I sure hope you learn fast so I don't have to keep bringing your vittles down

here. Then you can eat in the cookhouse.

Take them chains off you.

Things start looking better once you stop being African.

Start being nigger like the rest of us.

Go on, boy.

Them prime grits there.

Can you say grits?

Hey, grits.

Dummy.

Here.

I made sure old Rachel dipped you up a good piece of poke fat.

Here.

Yeah, yeah, that's good, boy.

That's poke.

Can you say poke?

Pug? Pigs. You know.

Uh-oh.

You must be one of them guinea men don't like pig meat. That it?

Well, you could have told me, couldn't you?

No, I guess you couldn't have told me.

No, it don't make sense to believe in that Jesus don't like ribs or fed back.

You better be eating all them grits, dummy, because there ain't no more

coming your way tonight.

Chris. Oh, good boy.

Good night, Toby.

Tommy.

Chris, Tommy.

I'm gonna lie that you're just making sounds and ain't talking words, because

if you call an old fiddler a dummy, I'd like to now just feed you to them hogs.

They ain't as choosy as you is about what they eat.

Fiddler. Mr. Ames. Good evening to you, sir.

Enjoy your trip to Annapolis?

Oh, yes, sir. Fine trip, sir.

Mr. Reynolds told me about the arrangement you made with him.

Yes, sir.

Interesting arrangement.

Good night, Fiddler.

Good night to you, Mr. Ames.

Sir.

Mr. Reynolds owns you.

Fiddler is going to teach you.

But sooner or later, nigger, you're mine.

Listen,

brother. Go to the village of Jufere and say to Omoro,

and my mother, Pinta,

and my grandmother, Nyoboto.

Tell them I've been taken across a great river with no shores to the land of the

white man.

Tell them I see men and women here of the Fulani tribe, the Wolof tribe, the

Hausa tribe, but they have all forgotten Allah.

Tell them I'll never be like them.

I will escape from this place.

I am a Mandinka warrior, and I will do it.

Tell them I am alive and will not forget them.

And tell them, do not forget me.

Do you hear me, little boy?

And you're doing very well. No, no, no, Ames.

You've been around there a stink all the live long day.

I can't see how you can believe they're anything more than bright monkeys.

With all due respect, sir, I believe you underestimate them. Oh, I underestimate

them, do I?

Well, let me tell you something.

I've been working blacks ever since I first took up this land.

Aye, sir, but you're not right out with them the way an overseer is.

I mean, I've heard people say it. They said it before, that your nigger by

nature is suited to being a slave, but you take my word for it, sir, it isn't

true.

Are you trying to tell me that you do not believe in the natural ability of

the white man to dominate the black?

That's correct, sir.

Slaves aren't born, they're made.

Meaning no offense, Ames, but you yourself told me that you started out as

a... Bound boy in the tidewater, seven years servitude?

Aye, bound I was.

Driven to the field with a cuff and a curse, same as them.

But at the end of seven years, I was free.

Now, you take one of your hands here.

Seven years from now, he'll still be black.

He'll still be a slave.

Because it's fear.

And to whip her up at 10, that's what makes a slave.

Now, Brother William, what say you?

We're loggerheads here, Ames and I. We need a third vote to break the deadlock.

Well, I'm not so arrogant as to challenge a man at his own specialty.

However, Ames spends more time with blacks than he does with whites.

Stands to reason that he knows them very well.

John... I don't mean to intrude, but... You're not intruding, my love.

What is it?

Well... The blacks are inferior to us.

They have much less intelligence, and they are incapable of learning all but

the most basic of concepts, yes?

Yes, most. Hold to that, my dear.

Well, then, why should we be afraid to teach them?

If they are incapable of learning, then how can it be a crime to teach them to

read? And if they can be taught to read, then they must be capable of learning.

I'm sure I've overlooked something I... I just don't understand.

Do you know I've seen bears taught to dance, too?

But I never thought it a graceful sight.

Surely not a natural one.

Then you think they can be taught to read? Yes.

Probably in the most rudimentary fashion, but that's where the danger

lies.

You see, my dear, a slave is ignorant.

I mean, he eats and drinks and sleeps and labors and is happy.

Now, if we allow him to learn to read, he begins to think and reflect.

Then he becomes most unhappy, miserable.

No, no, no. They have a simple spirit, and I think we serve them best by making

our demands ever like nature. Well said, William. Very well said.

Do you think they... they have feelings?

I mean, like we do.

Well, I think they have needs and hungers and passions, but no, not

precisely as we do.

Needs and hungers and passions.

My, such talking from a doctor, too.

Well, a doctor's best medicine is an open, honest relationship with his

patient, and I was just giving you an honest answer.

Now, that's enough, you two, enough.

My brother has a way with children and ladies, and I envy him the gift.

Iron has some fancy theories.

I'd like to show him life in the raw.

Like that hand you bought four months back off the slaver, the one you gave

Fiddler to break.

Toby, how's he doing, Mr. Raines? Only two more months before my birthday.

Well, Fiddler's doing his best.

But he's still in chains, if that answers your question.

Still in chains after four months?

John, that's not usual, is it?

Well, he's, uh, he is not usual, my dear.

No, it's not like when your nigger is born here, known only as slavery.

He's freeborn.

That's dangerous.

But, you know, he's a smart nigger.

Still won't answer to Toby.

You contradict yourself, Ames.

He's too slow to learn his own name. No, Doctor, he knows his own name.

It's the new name we gave him he doesn't want to answer to.

There's a difference.

Hey, Mary.

Oh, afternoon, Fiddler.

Hi, Sarah.

Oh, she'd be writing off our record.

Cookin' in the big house.

Doin' right enough by Massell Reynolds. Judgin' from the size his belly gettin'

to.

He gets any bigger, he ain't gonna be able to see his business no more.

No point in lookin' in the business if there ain't nobody interested in buyin'.

You're a terrible man.

That's right. Ain't it the truth?

Yeah,

let me give you a hand with that thing.

Here you go.

Fanta.

Fanta.

You hear what that African say, Mama?

He call me Fanta. That African talk?

Never you mind what kind of talk that is, you just leave that boy be.

I ain't do nothin' to him, Fiddler. He was gonna start talkin' to me first.

Yeah.

Come along now.

Let's get back to the vegetable garden before Mr. Ames come lookin' for us.

Come on.

Fiddler, let's get on up back here now.

Fiddler?

You and me rum, maybe?

What'd you say?

You and me.

Go away from here.

We ain't gonna run nowhere, because there's no place to run to, boy.

This land ain't got no place for us, except where we be right now.

You hear?

Besides, so nice this time of year, me and you ain't gonna

go no place till snow come.

What snow, fiddler? Never you mind, boy, never you mind.

Let's get on back to home.

I got enough trouble teaching you the difference between manure and massa.

Because there ain't all that much difference when it gets right down to

it.

Get up.

What's that sniffing round the tree?

Dog, Fiddler.

Dog sniffing round the tree.

What's that running across the road I see?

Squirrel, Fiddler.

Squirrel. crossing on the road and what's that shining on your head sun

fiddler sun shining on my head

I've got a dictionary in the butt end of this whip that'll make my meaning clear.

You do what Mr. Ames say now, Toby.

I didn't request any help from you, Fiddler. Yes, Mr.

Ames, that's a fact for sure.

But you see, Toby here... Toby here.

You've been teaching him so mighty fine, he doesn't even answer to his name.

Well, sir, you see, these here African guinea men, when they hear the loud

voice, sometimes they just ups and freezes like a baby quail, don't you

know? You trying to tell me I shouldn't be shutting up your nigger? Is that what

you're trying to say? Oh, no, Mr. Ames. He ain't my nigger. He's rightly

Maserino's nigger.

Though he did give him to me to teach up, like he told me.

All right.

Better let him go over to Toby.

You get him on his feet.

You get him to work it, or I'll cut up the both of you. Oh, yeah, I saw you.

Right now! Yeah, I saw Mr.

Ames. Right away, boss.

Get yourself up and get to work right now.

I'm up and working, boss, just like you told me.

Miss Ames, I'm doing my best, sir.

You ain't got to be scared.

Your talk's good enough to talk back to me. I heard you plenty of times.

What you doing in here, Aurelia?

Trying to talk to him, that's all.

Well, he African.

You can't talk to him.

Well, he talk to me, that's for sure.

Call me that word again.

Fanta. Oh, well, there was a girl back there in the holding pen with him at

Annapolis.

She come with him from Africa.

That'd be her name, I reckon. You and her be about the same age.

Here.

But now she's gone, and so should you be. That's a guinea man, and they eat

fresh young girls like you for breakfast.

I ain't never been breakfast for nobody.

Well, you go on, now.

You ain't got no more to say to him.

Go on.

Got me one more thing to say to him.

I saw.

I ain't told nobody yet, but I saw.

Fiddler, come on out here. I want to talk to you.

Yes, Mr. Haynes.

Come on.

What can I do for you, sir?

You get your fiddle going up to the main house.

Mr. Reynolds brought a friend back from the junction.

I want to hear some music to make him happy.

Oh, yes, sir. You come to the right man for that show now. Go on. Yes, sir.

Said you wanted to hear me play.

Here's your chance.

Give me that stuff.

Look at those stars.

Clouds look full of snow, don't they?

Oh, no, no, not snow.

Rain. Fiddler.

Yes, sir?

Fiddler, Sir Robert Calvert and I are waiting.

Coming. On the way.

Let go.

Fiddler.

The man.

I know the man.

How you know him?

When Reynolds, when Master Reynolds pay money for Kunta, that man there pay

money for Fanta.

Where that man come from, Fiddler?

Junction, Ames, say.

That's 15, 20 miles.

Days, Fiddler. How many in days? I don't know, and if I did, I sure in hell

wouldn't tell you. Now, let loose my fiddle.

Fiddler? Yes, sir?

I've heard a number of them, Mr. Reynolds.

They all have that flair, dancing and happiness.

It's inborn.

Nature of the beast.

Let's stand up straight now.

You wants to see my radio, Mr. Ames?

Oh, now, don't be like that.

He'd like to give you a quilt, a new color coat.

And you've been talking about getting a new color coat.

So get on in.

Oh, it's all right, child.

It's all right.

Good son.

. .

.

Send me some flowers.

Miss Reynolds wants to make the house look pretty for Marcel Reynolds'

birthday.

Flowers. This time of year.

Birthday? What's that?

Marcel Reynolds' birthday is the next biggest thing to Christmas, I reckon.

Then what's that?

Christmas?

A bunch of answers to that.

Christmas was when Jesus...

Up and got itself bored.

It's when white folks give each other what none of them need, no how.

But what it mostly is, is the one time a year we gets to eat good.

Get so I can burp and say my amens all at the same time.

Christmas.

That happen at night, Tom Fiddler?

It happen when it happen, I reckon.

How come?

I don't see it really no more at night time.

She all the time, Mr. Ames, Captain.

What they doing in there, Fiddler? What they doing in there?

What you think they be doing in there?

You hear Mr. Ames grunting and puffing most till dawn, don't you?

I hear them.

Well, then, they be doing the same way they does back in Africa already.

Huh.

Her and Mr. Ames.

Do you think they... talk?

Suppose she ain't said nothing.

Because if she did, I'd know.

Never did figure out what that girl say she saw.

from the kitchen.

I got...

Damn you, nigger.

Didn't you think nothing about me? About you, Fiddler? Yeah, me.

Me, me, me.

You go running off in the hills, you know what's gonna happen to me.

I gets to sleep on a mud floor.

I gets to eat what the pigs won't eat.

You was mine to turn into a good nigger. You go running off in everything I got,

everything I worked for.

And it ain't much. It'll all be gone.

Fiddler want me stay?

No.

You can't stay now, not with them broke-off chains.

You done done it to it now.

You done done it, so you got to go right now, tonight.

Ain't see with them legged hands broke like that. It'll go hard with you.

Will it come, Quinta?

No.

It's too cold and I'm too old.

Hound dogs would catch us before we get more than two miles.

By yourself, you got a chance, maybe.

Not much, but a little.

You shouldn't have left them chains alone, nigger.

Chains ain't right for nigger fiddler.

Lord, you show us some mighty child.

I'm going to never forget you.

I'm going to be free.

I'd like to be free African.

What it like?

Must be something special.

. .

.

Yeah.

I know you understand me.

Toby.

You're going to learn to answer to your name!

Could I see Marcel Reynolds, please?

Well, Fiddler, I believe. He's studying the scriptures now.

Oh, the man's a Christian saint, he is. But it's powerful and important.

Very well, Fiddler. You wait here. Yes, ma'am.

Put some oil on it. It's a bit dry.

Very well, Fiddler. He'll see you now.

Thank you, Miss Reynolds. Fiddler, don't overstay your welcome.

Oh, no, Miss Reynolds. We'll never do that.

Take him up.

Tie him off.

Fiddler, he's a runaway.

Now, you understand that I cannot countenance that sort of behavior.

Do you understand the word countenance?

Yes, sir.

But you told me he was mine, Master.

You said when we was bringing him back from auction... Yes, yours had turned

into a proper field hand, and since he ran away, you didn't do a very good job.

Isn't that a fair deduction?

Do you understand the word deduction?

Yes, sir, my sir. I understand. Mind your tone. Mind your tone, Fiddler. Mind

your tone.

Mind it well.

I anticipate some adjustments will be forthcoming toward you as a result of

all this.

Yes, sir.

I just hate to see a prime... I'm feel-hand like that boy all ruined. I

want every buck I want you to the barn.

It's just that you paid good money for that African Guinea man, and you

shouldn't... You're going to see how a bad nigger gets turned good.

You got an investment.

Yes, sir, Master.

Oh, Fiddler's finished, right enough.

That is correct.

Mr. Ames is now in charge of the African.

You feel me, Fiddler?

And what we'll do about that, we'll discuss at a later time.

James.

Your name is Toby.

I want to hear you say it.

Your name is Toby.

You're going to learn to say your name.

Let me hear you say it.

What's your name?

Kunta.

Kunta Kinte.

When the master gives you something, you take it.

He gave you a name.

It's a nice name.

It's Toby.

And it's going to be yours till the day you die.

Now, I know you understand me, and I want to hear it.

I want to hear you say your name.

Your name is Toby.

What's your name?

Gunther.

Lord God help that boy.

They're gonna whip him dead.

What's your name?

Say it!

Toby!

Who are you?

Say your name.

What's your name?

Toby.

Say it again.

Say it louder so they all can hear you. What's your name?

Toby.

My name... is Toby.

Aye.

That's a good nigger.

Cut him down.

Ugh!

Would you care what that white man call you?

Make you say Toby.

Would you care?

You know who you be.

Kunta.

That's who you always be.

You hear me?

Could be another day.

Next on Roots, John Amos as the adult Kunta Kinte finds Fanta. Take me from my

home. The only time I get to be free is when I run away.

And shares with her his flight for freedom. We can make it to the north and

be free.

I'm gonna stay alive.

Maggie, who's that you got in there with you?

Roots, the triumph of an American family continues. That's him.