Give your students new perspectives on race relations, on the history of the American Revolution, and on the contribution of the Founding Fathers to the cause of representative democracy. Check out TWM’s Guide:

TWM offers the following movie worksheets to keep students’ minds on the film and to focus their attention on the lessons to be learned from the movie.

Film Study Worksheet for a Work of Historical Fiction;

Film Study Worksheet for ELA Classes; and

Worksheet for Cinematic and Theatrical Elements and Their Effects.

Teachers can modify the movie worksheets to fit the needs of each class. See also TWM’s Historical Fiction in Film Cross-Curricular Homework Project and Movies as Literature Homework Project.

Additional ideas for lesson plans for this movie can be found at TWM’s guide to Lesson Plans Using Film Adaptations of Novels, Short Stories or Plays.

Roots is a video presentation of Alex Haley’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Roots: The Saga of an American Family. Volume II portrays Kunta Kinte’s voyage across the Atlantic in a slave ship and the first years of his life in America as a slave.

Selected Awards:

The “Roots” series won a Golden Globe Award as the Best Television Series of 1978, nine Emmy Awards, and many other honors.

Featured Actors:

LeVar Burton, Edward Asner, Louis Gossett, Jr. Loren Greene, Robert Reed, Ralph Waite, Ji-Tu Cumbuka, Lynda Day George, Vic Maro, Paul Shaenar, Ren Woods.

Director:

David Greene and John Erman.

The series describes important aspects of the black experience in the U.S. and, for all Americans, helps in facing the legacies of slavery and segregation.

MINOR. There is some violence in this film. It is appropriate to the message of the movie.

Before watching the movie, review the Helpful Background section and describe its contents to your child. Immediately after the movie ask and help your child to answer the Quick Discussion Question, the Social-Emotional Learning Discussion Question under Surviving, and the Question on Morality and Ethics.

See the TWM student handout Slavery: A World-Wide View, Then and Now.

The “Golden Triangle” was a shipping route by which American (mostly New England) boat owners would take tobacco and other agricultural products and sell them in England; purchase manufactured goods in England; take those to various destinations to obtain commodities and then return to North America. The shipping triangle shown in this episode was tobacco to England (leg one), trade goods to Africa (leg two), slaves to America (leg three). Other trading routes included tobacco and other agricultural goods being sent to England, traded there for manufactured goods, which would then be taken to the West Indies and exchanged for sugar or rum, which would then be taken to North America. Yet another route was ice from the ponds of New England, taken to the West Indies and traded for sugar or rum, which was then taken to England and traded for manufactured goods, which were then brought home to New England.

One of the most corrupting aspects of slavery was the sexual exploitation of female slaves. This was true of Roman slavery as well as slavery in the U.S. (see Spartacus). This episode shows a young slave girl being encouraged by her grandmother to enter the hut of the overseer to serve as his bed wench. These problems are elaborated in later “Roots” segments.

1. See Discussion Questions for Use With any Film that is a Work of Fiction.

SURVIVING

1. Should the mother have protested and tried to stop her daughter from being taken as a “bed wench” by the overseer? What would this have accomplished?

Discussion Questions Relating to Ethical Issues will facilitate the use of this film to teach ethical principles and critical viewing. Additional questions are set out below.

RESPECT

(Treat others with respect; follow the Golden Rule; Be tolerant of differences; Use good manners, not bad language; Be considerate of the feelings of others; Don’t threaten, hit or hurt anyone; Deal peacefully with anger, insults, and disagreements)

1. Is it possible for a slave owner to act respectfully toward his or her slave?

Suggested Response:

No. The very nature of the slave/master relationship is for the owner to take advantage of the slave. The slave serves the owner without recompense. A good employer/employee relationship is much different. The employer pays for the work of the employee at a reasonable rate. An employer can also train an employee so that he can undertake new responsibilities, have a more satisfying job and make more money.

See Assignments, Projects, and Activities for Use With Any Film that is a Work of Fiction.

Older children who are good readers will enjoy the book Roots: The Saga of an American Family by Alex Haley.

This Learning Guide was last updated on July 21, 2011.

Benefits of the Movie
Possible Problems
Parenting Points
Selected Awards & Cast

Helpful Background
Discussion Questions
Social-Emotional Learning

Moral-Ethical Emphasis
Assignments and Projects
Bridges to Reading

TWM offers the following movie worksheets to keep students’ minds on the film and to focus their attention on the lessons to be learned from the movie.

Film Study Worksheet for a Work of Historical Fiction;

Film Study Worksheet for ELA Classes; and

Worksheet for Cinematic and Theatrical Elements and Their Effects.

Teachers can modify the movie worksheets to fit the needs of each class. See also TWM’s Historical Fiction in Film Cross-Curricular Homework Project and Movies as Literature Homework Project.

Additional ideas for lesson plans for this movie can be found at TWM’s guide to Lesson Plans Using Film Adaptations of Novels, Short Stories or Plays.

RANDALL KENNEDY, Professor, Harvard Law School on the two alternative traditions relating to racism in America:

“I say that the best way to address this issue is to address it forthrightly, and straightforwardly, and embrace the complicated history and the complicated presence of America. On the one hand, that’s right, slavery, and segregation, and racism, and white supremacy is deeply entrenched in America. At the same time, there has been a tremendous alternative tradition, a tradition against slavery, a tradition against segregation, a tradition against racism.

I mean, after all in the past 25 years, the United States of America has seen an African-American presence. As we speak, there is an African-American vice president. As we speak, there’s an African- American who is in charge of the Department of Defense. So we have a complicated situation. And I think the best way of addressing our race question is to just be straightforward, and be clear, and embrace the tensions, the contradictions, the complexities of race in American life. I think we need actually a new vocabulary.

So many of the terms we use, we use these terms over and over, starting with racism, structural racism, critical race theory. These words actually have been weaponized. They are vehicles for propaganda. I think we would be better off if we were more concrete, we talked about real problems, and we actually used a language that got us away from these overused terms that actually don’t mean that much.   From Fahreed Zakaria, Global Public Square, CNN, December 26, 2021

Give your students new perspectives on race relations, on the history of the American Revolution, and on the contribution of the Founding Fathers to the cause of representative democracy. Check out TWM’s Guide: TWO CONTRASTING TRADITIONS RELATING TO RACISM IN AMERICA and a Tragic Irony of the American Revolution: the Sacrifice of Freedom for the African-American Slaves on the Altar of Representative Democracy.

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