# "Roots" plagerism charge **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 16, 2003, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roots-plagerism-charge/148953 "2003-01-16T12:27:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![TV\_time](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f17d59/32.png) [@TV\_time](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TV_time)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2003, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roots-plagerism-charge/148953/1 "2003-01-16T12:27:09Z")
When Alex Hailley’s book _Roots_ came out, it was hailed as wonderful, but about the time the mini-series version of the book hit the small screen, I seem to remember a scandal about portions of the book being plagerized. Is this just my faulty memory or was it real? Whom did he plagerize if he did in fact do it? ---
**Author:** ![Keith\_Berry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/22d042/32.png) [@Keith\_Berry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keith_Berry)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2003, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roots-plagerism-charge/148953/2 "2003-01-16T12:36:39Z")
I remember reading about this as well…if I recall correctly, the suit was settled privately before it even reached the courtroom. I’ve never read the book or seen the mini-series. Any good? ---
**Author:** ![Desmostylus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c57346/32.png) [@Desmostylus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desmostylus)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2003, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roots-plagerism-charge/148953/3 "2003-01-16T12:40:41Z")
Maybe a bit of plagiarism, but apparently mostly fabrication. [http://www.martinlutherking.org/roots.html](http://www.martinlutherking.org/roots.html) ---
**Author:** ![Desmostylus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c57346/32.png) [@Desmostylus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desmostylus)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2003, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roots-plagerism-charge/148953/4 "2003-01-16T12:51:08Z")
And, [From here](http://www.who2.com/alexhaley.html): > [@](#): > > Haley was sued for plagiarism by Harold Courlander, author of the 1968 book The Africans; Haley agreed that he had unintentionally used three paragraphs from Courlander’s book in Roots and settled with the author out of court. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2003, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roots-plagerism-charge/148953/5 "2003-01-16T13:40:53Z")
I don’t remember details, but I do remember reading side-by-side quotes from Roots and from the other book. The similarities were striking. But what _really_ bothered me was the statement Haley supposedly made that the paragraphs were taken from the other work by a research aide. _That_ brought up all sorts of questions – Didn’t Haley do his own research? Did Haley let assistants actually write _his_ book? I’ve never understood the whole story. I’m kind of sad to read these accusations that virtually all of Haley’s geneology is a fraud. I’d followed “Roots” since before the book even appeared – Haley first published the story in The New York Times Sunday magazine back in 1975 or 1976. There’s nothing of “white liberal guilt” in this – being able to reach that far back into the past for one’s ancestors, especially under the circumstances, is impressive and fascinating. Why hasn’t this come up before? How is it possible to “ban” something from PBS? ---
**Author:** ![Sparrow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Sparrow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sparrow)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2003, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roots-plagerism-charge/148953/6 "2003-01-16T13:44:28Z")
> [@](#): > > I’m kind of sad to read these accusations that virtually all of Haley’s geneology is a fraud. I’d followed “Roots” since before the book even appeared – Haley first published the story in The New York Times Sunday magazine back in 1975 or 1976. There’s nothing of “white liberal guilt” in this – being able to reach that far back into the past for one’s ancestors, especially under the circumstances, is impressive and fascinating. Is it still impressive and fascinating even if it’s a fabrication? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2003, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roots-plagerism-charge/148953/7 "2003-01-16T13:47:03Z")
I read the book a long time ago. I remember thinking the last 100 pages reminded me of the Begats in the Bible…Haley spent the bulk of the book on Kunta Kinte and the first few generations, then kind of rushed through the immediate generations right before his birth…you know, so and so married such and such, then Whosit was born, who married Whirlygirl, then I was born. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2003, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roots-plagerism-charge/148953/8 "2003-01-16T14:16:01Z")
> [@](#): > > Is it still impressive and fascinating even if it’s a fabrication? Nope – not in that way. A _true_ story about actually sifting through the miasma of history and records and finding your own family tree (boy, _that’s_ a badly mixed metaphor!) is a _lot_ more fascinating and impressive than someone simply fabricating such a tree, even if plausible and well-researched. ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2003, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roots-plagerism-charge/148953/9 "2003-01-16T15:44:52Z")
I’m confused - he made up his family tree? ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2003, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roots-plagerism-charge/148953/10 "2003-01-16T19:14:30Z")
I _listened_ to several hours of audio tape of Haley describing his search in early 1973. Absolutely fascinating. He clearly knew he had an ancestor named “Kinte”, who had been caught by slavers while out in the woods to get a log to make drum, long before he started his search. He also knew it was shortly have the British soldiers had first visited the area. These allowed him to pinpoint Kinte’s tribe and the period when he was enslaved. He figured out quite a bit going along this way. But, for the book, he threw in a lot of other stuff to make a story that wasn’t factual. Just things that were typical for the time and places. ---
**Author:** ![Kaitlyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/73ab20/32.png) [@Kaitlyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaitlyn)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2003, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roots-plagerism-charge/148953/11 "2003-01-17T00:15:53Z")
Just to clear something up, most of the _book_ was a product of Haley’s imagination, but most of the family tree itself is accurate. Virtually all of Kunta Kinte’s story was likely created by Haley based on what would have been typical in an African’s life in that time period in Africa and subsequent to being taken a slave, mixed with generations’ old stories told about an ancestor of his known only as “The African” whose actual name was long lost. Haley supposedly got the name from a griot (story teller) in Africa. Whether he actually located the village and unearthed the name is dubious. Kunta’s story occupies a bit over half of the book. Most of the remaining section of the book concerns Kunta’s daughter, Kizzy. The geneology from Kizzy through Haley is solidly supported by evidence, though the details of what exactly went on were likely a product of Haley’s research on slave life in that era combined with what few records of trades and such were unearthed. As you get closer to the present, each subsequent generation’s story gets shorter–Chicken George gets a decent amount of development, his son Tom a little less, and from there it’s pretty much as ivylass described it–more a listing of who produced whom on their way to producing Haley than a story. So the main character of the first section of the book was likely nearly entirely invented by Haley–that The African existed, was Kizzy’s father, and was reported to have repeatedly tried to escape until hobbled is really all we know about him–but the other people, who occupy somewhat less than half the book, actually existed as documented, though their stories are highly fictionalized. It’s still a fantastic read.