Roots Episode II Day 3: Answer the Following Viewing Questions

Name ______1 3 4 6 7 8 Due Date ______

Roots Episode II Day 3: Answer the following Viewing Questions

In this episode, Kunta survives the Middle Passage and arrives in America where he is sold to his first owner- a Virginia planter named Reynolds. This is done through auction. Kunta is then given into the care of another slave, “Fiddler” for training on how to become a “proper slave”. The plantation is shown on their arrival.

1. If there were always more blacks on board the slave ships than crew, why weren’t there more uprisings? What happened when the slaves did try to rebel?
2. Describe the ship-board conditions of the slave ship Lord Ligonier above and below decks.
3. Over the captain’s objections, how does the representative of the company that hired the ship explain how it intends to profit from the “cargo” of slaves.
4. What do Kunta and Fanta discuss about Africa and America while waiting to be auctioned?
5. Describe the auction. How does it work that Kunta and Fanta are sold apart to different owners? What does Kunta promise Fanta?
6. Describe some of the different people in the crowd watching the auction. What differences do you notice? What does Kunta seem to notice?
7. What rules do you observe about how slaves are named, treated, and kept trapped in slavery?
8. What’s with Fiddler? As a slave, how is he caught in the middle between his master and his master’s slaves?
9. According to Master Reynolds, what makes a “good” slave?
10. Describe Reynold’s “Big House” and family.
11. Describe Fiddler’s quarters and his “family”.
12. What do slaves born in American think about slaves brought from Africa?
13. What is one question you have from your viewing of this episode?

Journal Writing Question (To be completed on your own paper and attached to this handout)

If you were in Kunta’s position, what would you have done to have survived the middle passage, and not just to have survived under slavery in America, but to have made the “best” of it? Would you have followed “Fiddler’s” ? Analyze the options.