Roots by Alex Haley

Author:Alex Haley [Haley, Alex]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, pdf
Tags: Literature
ISBN: 9781593154493
Publisher: Vanguard
Published: 1976-03-21T07:00:00+00:00

But what if it hadn't been so innocent? Had Kizzy been flaunting herself before Noah? And if she had, what had he done to encourage it? He had seemed to be a young man of honor, of good character--but you never knew.

Kunta wasn't sure how to feel or what to think. In any case, as Bell had said, their daughter was only fifteen, which in the customs of the toubob's land was still too young for her to be thinking about getting married. He realized that he wasn't feeling very African about it, but somehow he Just didn't feel ready to think about Kizzy walking around with a big belly as he'd seen on so many girls her age, even younger.

If she did marry Noah, though, he thought, at least their child would be black and not one of those pale sasso borro babies, products of the mothers having been raped by lusting mass as or overseers. Kunta thanked Allah that neither his Kizzy nor any other slave-row women ever had faced that horrifying experience, or at least not since he had been there, for countless times he had heard Massa Waller strongly expressing among friends his convictions against white and black bloods being mixed.

The next few weeks, as the opportunity would present, Kunta covertly watched Kizzy's bottom for any signs of wiggling. He never caught her at it, but once or twice both he and she were startled when he came upon her in the cabin twirling round and round, tossing her head and humming dreamily to herself. Kunta also kept a close eye 442 ALEX HALEY

on Noah; he noticed that now--unlike before--Noah and Kizzy would nod and smile whenever they passed each other within the sight of anyone else. The more he mused on it, the more strongly he speculated that they were skillfully concealing their ardor. After a while Kunta decided that there should be no harm in Noah and Kizzy's publicly taking conversational walks together; in his accompanying her to camp meeting, or to the "dance-ol'Jenny-down" frolics that were held each summer, where Noah as her partner would surely be preferable to some impudent stranger. Indeed, it was possible that, after another rain or so for them both, Noah might even make Kizzy a good mate.

An awareness began to dawn within Kunta that Noah had begun to observe him, just as closely as the other way around, and now Kunta anticipated, nervously, that the boy was trying to muster the nerve to ask if he could marry Kizzy. It was on a Sunday afternoon in early April-- Massa Waller had brought a family of guests home with him after church, and Kunta was outside the barn polishing the guests' buggy--when something told him to glance up, and he saw the dark, slender Noah walking purposefully down along the path from slave row.

Reaching Kunta, he spoke without hesitation, as if his words were rehearsed: "01' suh, you's de onliest one I feels like I can trust. I got to tell somebody.

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