ROOTS vs To Be A Slave

Throughout the tv show, ROOTS, I've noticed many differences from how the slaves were treated in the book, To Be A Slave. One difference between the book and the show was that the book was more of a compilation of former slaves and their stories. While the show talked about a specific main character, and how he came to be a slave. The show talked a lot more about what the lifestyle was like for someone in Africa before they were captured. While in the book, they talked a lot more about how slaves were treated in America after being captured as well as their boat journey to America. For example, at the beginning of they book, the audience is introduced to how Africans were seen as by the slaves and what the lifestyle was like in Africa. While in the movie, the story started off in Africa, following the character into adulthood who was soon captured to be a slave.

Another difference that I noticed was that during the part of the show where Africans were being captured. Many other Africans were hired by the Whites to capture other Africans. In the book, you can tell that many Africans were treated differently from other slaves depending on their employer. I think that the reason why these differences occurred is because it shows that regardless of their race, people were turned against each other. For example, even though these people were the same race as the people they were capturing, they were hired by the Whites in order for their survival.

The last difference that occurred was the boat journey. Before watching the episode, which happened in the book, I expected to see a lot more women being captured. In the tv show, many of the slaves were men, with only a few women.  While in the book, the audience is able to read about the variety of slaves that were captured. The book also went into depth about what the surroundings were like on the ship. I was expecting the ship scene in the tv show to be a bit more shocking, in a way that we were able to see the hardships that the slaves had to go through down at the bottom of the ship. The book also talked about how the Whites would take a woman's baby away and throw them overboard. While in the show, we don't see much of the women slaves on the ship. I think that they decided to make this different because books are more of a platform where the author can hit more of the hard hitting stuff, the impact of a book is to leave readers thinking and learning a new lesson. While the a tv show is more of a platform where directors and producers have to be more cautious about what they show, seeing that they're talking about a lot of controversial things.

All in all, the tv show, ROOTS and the book, To Be A Slave included many differences, but both shared and made people more aware of slavery in the United States.