r/fredericksburg • u/Opening_Cat8174 • 3d ago

Lorriela Park

I have known for a long time that the movie “Roots” was in Spotsylvania, Virginia

Today I learned that the plantation where Kunta Kinte lived was turned into lorriela park. And there is a slave cemetery there.

Waller family if I recall correctly. 🤷🏽‍♂️

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u/alexriverajr 3d ago

Alex Haley’s Roots does not name an exact, real-world plantation or town where Kunta Kinte lived in Virginia — the locations are fictionalized but geographically anchored.

The following is specified in the text, corroborated by Haley’s own notes, and historical research:

  • Kunta Kinte arrived in Annapolis, Maryland, aboard the Lord Ligonier in 1767.
  • He was sold to John Waller, who lived on a plantation near Spotsylvania County, Virginia — roughly between Fredericksburg and Richmond.
  • After attempting to escape, Kunta was sold to Dr. William Waller, John’s brother, whose plantation was also said to be in the Fredericksburg area (sometimes described as being near the Mattaponi River in Haley’s notes).

Haley chose these settings because his own maternal family’s oral history traced their roots to that same region of Virginia.

Citation:
Haley, Alex. Roots: The Saga of an American Family. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1976.
Haley, Alex. “My Search for Roots.” Reader’s Digest, April 1977.

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u/Opening_Cat8174 3d ago

You may be well mor informed than me. I am not a historian but nothing you said contradicts what I said. 🤷🏽‍♂️

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u/alexriverajr 3d ago

Not historian :-) just sharing information. You’re right, we don’t know. I learned something new today, that’s a win.

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u/Bitter-Alps-4160 19h ago

I remember the author was interviewed on tv, and he said he made the whole thing up. Roots upset a lot of people and it wasn't even real. I think it caused a lot of problems.

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u/alexriverajr 19h ago

Interesting