Roots: The Saga of an American Family Power Quotes

Take note of this one, you sultans of Shmoop, because it's going to come up a lot throughout the novel. We see countless instances of "goodness being repaid with badness," from Kizzy's friendship with Missy Anne leading to her being sold, to Chicken George's blind loyalty to Massa Lea leading to him being sent to England for three years.

At first, Kunta believes that the enslaved Africans in America have simply accepted the toubob's dominance, but he quickly starts seeing the bigger picture. When you're fighting a foe that's so insanely powerful, you can't fight it directly—you have to strike from the shadows.

Although Kunta despises Samson more than everyone, he doesn't fully understand what's going on here. Samson probably got whipped because of Kunta's recent escape attempt. He might hate the guy because he seems to have accepted the toubob's ways, but the truth is that Samson is just as controlled and dominated as Kunta is.

This is one of the most awful moments in the novel, as it shows how poor Americans exploited their power over black people, either out of sadistic pleasure, or some misguided attempt to get back at the rich aristocrats who look down on them.

While it's certainly good that Massa Waller treats his slaves well, we think that might be outweighed by the fact that he, you know, owns slaves. Not exactly a sign of strong moral fiber.

The fiddler has this special way of perfectly encapsulating the racist power structures of American society at the time. They can rationalize it however they want, they can talk about it in the most high-falutin' terms possible, and they can even create false science to back up their racist claims, but nothing changes the fact that slave-owners earn their living from others' suffering.

It's understandable why Kunta dislikes poor white people so much—they're the ones who cut off his foot, after all—but his personal experiences prevent him from seeing how they too are affect by the imbalanced power structure in America. Nothing excuses such abuse, but it begins to explain it.

Kunta might as well drop the mic after this one. Although Kizzy doesn't understand it now, she'll learn this lesson the hard way when Missy Anne abandons her when she is being sold, despite her being the one to teach her how to read in the first place.

Here, Chicken George naively believes that his biological relationship to Massa Lea will somehow change the power dynamic between them. Does he have any reason to believe this? Not really. Still, it's something that George struggles with throughout the novel.

This is the moment when Chicken George finally understands the power dynamic between himself and Massa Lea. No matter the complexities of their relationship, nothing changes the fact that Massa Lea owns him.