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Saturday, September 27, 2014
FAMOUS SLAVES
Africa’s heritage, Kunta Kinte Kunta Kinte, a character created by Alex Haley in his book, Roots: The Saga of an American Family, is undoubtedly and unarguably one of the famous and most talked about slaves in history. He is believed to be one of 98 slaves brought to Annapolis, Maryland aboard the ship Lord Ligonier in 1767. With the character of Kunta Kinte, the writer created one of the classic stories of slavery which led to a screen adaptation titled Roots many years later. The TV mini-series in the long-run, affected the way a generation felt about slavery and the slave trade. It was published as non-fiction, and purported to be the result of Alex Haley’s
quest to discover his ancestry. What we know about this famous slave is that he was born around 1750 in the Mandinka village of Juffure, The Gambia, when slavery was the order of the day. According to the story, Kinte was chased and captured by four men one particular day in 1767, when he was searching for wood to make a drum for his younger brother. He awoke to find himself blindfolded, gagged, bound, and a prisoner of white men. He and others were transported aboard the Lord Ligonier for four-months on a Middle Passage voyage to North America. Kinte survived the trip to Maryland and
was sold to a Virginia plantation owner in Spotsylvania County, Master Waller, who renamed him ‘Toby.’ He rejected the name imposed by his owners and refused to speak to others. After being recaptured during the last of his four escape attempts, the slave catchers gave him a choice: he would be castrated or have his right foot cut off. He chose to have his foot cut off, and the men cut off the front half of his right foot. As the years passed, Kunta resigned himself to his fate and became more open and sociable with his fellow slaves but he never lost his connection to his African heritage.