Series Description:

Regardless of your racial heritage, you can't possibly watch the Roots miniseries without gaining some insight into what it must be like to be a slave. This "eye-opening" saga begins as a young African male named Kunta Kinte is becoming a man. His life is a happy one until he is captured by slavers and brutally forced into slavery in 18th century America. Roots then follows Kunta Kinte's life adjusting to the reality of his plight and continues through his descendants lives until his family is once again free. The story ends with the birth of Alex Haley, the author of Roots.The interaction between field slaves, house slaves, poor whites, plantation owners, etc. create a feeling that you are actually there yourself. The series won 9 Emmys and 1 Golden Globe Award! It has been seen by more viewers than any other miniseries ever produced.

Roots Cast (Main Characters):

LeVar Burton .... Kunta Kinte
Louis Gossett Jr. .... Fiddler
Ben Vereen .... Chicken George
Leslie Uggams .... Kizzy
Lorne Greene .... John Reynolds
Burl Ives .... Senator Arthur Johnson
Doug McClure .... Jemmy Brent
George Hamilton .... Stephen Bennett
O.J. Simpson .... Kadi Touray
Vic Morrow .... Ames
Robert Reed .... Dr. William Reynolds
Richard Roundtree .... Sam Bennett
Ralph Waite .... Slater
Lloyd Bridges .... Evan Brent
Edward Asner .... Captain Thomas Davies
Gary Collins .... Grill
Chuck Connors .... Tom Moore
Scatman Crothers .... Mingo
Cicely Tyson .... Binta (Kunta's Mother)
Sandy Duncan .... Missy Anne Reynolds
Lynda Day George .... Mrs. Reynolds
Carolyn Jones .... Mrs. Moore

A History Of Slavery:

1441 - Ten Africans taken captive by a Portuguese sailor (Antam Gonclaves). Generally considered to be the beginning of the Atlantic slave trade.

1662 - Three hundred slaves taken in Sierra Leone by John Hawkins - First English slave trader.

1619 - First African slaves are sold in the Americas at Jamestown, Virginia.

1672 - The Royal African Company is established to control the British slave trade.

1680 - The Royal African Company transports more than 30,000 to the Americas over the next 6 years.

1698 - Private slave traders are sanctioned to participate in slave trading by England at a sales tax of 10 percent.

1700 - The "Liverpool Merchant" slave ship delivers 220 slaves to Barbados. Sales price was 4,239 Pounds Sterling.

1713 - A treaty is signed between Spain and England giving England a monopoly on Spanish slave trade. England promises to provide at least 4,800 slaves per year to Spanish territories for the next 30 years for a total of at least 144,000 slaves.

1752 - Liverpool now has eight slave ships that transport more than 25,000 slaves yearly, packing them in so tightly that they nearly couldn't move.

1772 - England passes law making it illegal to forcibly remove any person from England.

1777 - The U.S. State of Vermont ends slavery.

1781 - Liverpool's Zong ship throws 131 slaves overboard to their deaths.

1790 - First U.S. census shows that there are 697,897 slaves in the United States alone.

1791 - Slavery is outlawed in France. Actually, slavery had not been prev- iously practiced in France.

1801 - Napoleon decides to re-establish slavery in France.

1808 - Both Great Britain and the U.S. make it illegal to import any more slaves from Africa or elsewhere.

1821 - Slave trade made totally illegal in Spain.

1823 - Slavery is abolished in Chile.

1824 - Slavery is abolished in Central America.

1827 - Great Britain says that slave trading is piracy and is punishable by death.

1829 - Slavery is abolished in Mexico.

1831 - Slavery is abolished in Bolivia.

1838 - Slavery made totally illegal in Great Britain.

1848 - Slavery is again abolished in France.

1848 - Slavery is abolished in Martinique and Guadeloupe after slave upris- ings in both countries!

1848 - Slavery is abolished in French Guiana and the Danish West Indies (Now the U.S. Virgin Islands).

1854 - Slavery is abolished in Venezuela.

1863 - Slavey is abolished in the Dutch colonies.

May 24, 1861 - Union general Benjamin F. Butler receives fugitive slaves at Fortress Monroe, Virginia, declares them "contraband of war" and puts them to work.

March 13, 1862 Congress forbids members of the army and navy to return fugi- tive slaves to their owners.

March 16, 1862 Congress abolishes slavery in the District of Columbia, offers monetary compensation to loyal owners and agrees to pay for transport of any slave who wishes to leave to U.S.

May 9, 1862 - Gen. David Hunter declares all slaves in South Carolina, Georgia and Florida are free.

May 19, 1862 - President Abraham Lincoln nullifies Gen. Hunters declara- tion freeing slaves in South Carolina, Georgia and Florida but urges the border states (Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland, and Delaware) to free their slaves and be compensated monetarily for them by the U.S. government.

June 19, 1862 - Congress makes slavery in U.S. territories illegal.

July 17, 1862 - Congress passes law freeing all slaves of all persons rebelling against the Union and those assisting in the rebellion. It also forbids the Army and Navy from surrendering any person to any other thus returning them to slavery.

July 22, 1862 - President Lincoln announces that he will issue a proclamation freeing all slaves in the rebel states as soon as the North achieves victory.

January 1, 1863 - President Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation free- ing all slaves in Confederate states except Tennessee, southern Louis- iana and in parts of Virginia.

January 7, 1863 - Black Union soldiers repel Confederate attack at Milliken's Bend, Louisiana.

June 15, 1864 - Congress raises the pay of black soldiers to equal that of white soldiers. Previously all black soldiers regardless of rank had received $10 per month. White soldiers started at $13 per month for Privates and their pay increased with increasing rank.

April 8, 1864 - U.S. Senate approves the constitutional amendment abolishing slavery.

April 9, 1865 - Civil War in the U.S. ends.

April 14, 1865 - President Lincoln is assassinated.

December 18, 1865 - The 13th amendment to the U.S. constitution abolishing slavery is signed into law at last!

1873 - Slavery is abolished in Puerto Rico.

1880 - Slavery is abolished in Cuba.

1886 - Slavery is abolished in Brazil.