A Defense For Missy Anne Reynolds

What is your fascination with this white girl. As another poster noted, you are more enthralled with this one white character than all of the atrocities in movie. Missy Anne is NOT important.

_______________
Conservatives, I hear your complaints. What are your solutions?

I understand where you're coming from vivflow, as for many years prior I always considered Missy Anne as 'the evil white girl' because of her stance with Kizzy.

However you did create a valid point.

Yes it was wrong for Missy Anne to teach Kizzy how to read AND yes it was wrong for Kizzy to forge the travel pass for Noah BUT let's take a look at the scenario in its entirety:

Missy Anne did not reside on her 'uncle's' plantation, she was only visiting, therefore, as far for Noah being sold off (and Kizzy too) it was beyond Missy Anne's control. When Kizzy was overheard by Massa Reynolds reading to Missy Anne, he knew it then that Kizzy was taught how to read....fast forward to the scene after Noah was found and Missy Anne plays dumb about Kizzy, check out the look on Massa's face. He knew that it was entirely Anne's fault BUT he would NEVER let the truth e known, especially to his slaves. So to save face, he had Kizzy sold, thus breaking his promise to Belle and Kunta(Toby) with whom this was NO fault of their own.

As for some of the statements from others about Kizzy forging the pass for freedom....this goes to show just how strong her faith and hope was. Granted she wanted to see him free but deep down she had to have known it didn't mean much for her. It would've been a one and gazillion chance for Noah to return for her a free man, take her away and begin a new life. That didn't happen much later until her son George was able to buy his own freedom, purchase his own land and return for his family during his 'winter' years.

When life gives you lemons, make apple juice and let the world figure out how you did it!

[deleted]

Unfortunately, there is no defense for Missy Anne. She did what she did to Kizzy and thought it was funny. Missy Anne is spoiled and feels superior (of course). Missy Anne had the power and used it to her advantage to get back at her "friend". I have watched Roots many times. Each time I try to sympathize with Missy Anne but I can't do it. Missy Anne is evil. Then to add insult to injury she pretends not to know Kizzy at all. Missy Anne is a fiend...a diabolical fiend.

Whyyy, yeessahh Massa, shee shooda beeen aaa goood neggga mmmhmmm!

Kizzy doesn't owe Missy Anne anything. She doesn't even belong to Missy Anne, she belongs to Dr. Reynolds, Anne's uncle/father. Her only obligations as a slave are to him, not to Missy Anne. Staying with him and her family was all she wanted and had she not forged the pass, Belle would probably have been able to talk to Dr. Reynolds to end the arrangement. He was a reasonable man but only in his capacity as a slave-owner I should stress - alas Mr. Brady was no saint as you may see from the second episode and his dialogue on slaves. He thought little of their abilities and didn't even think they had the strength to want more, for which he was rightly reprimanded by Mr. Ames, Squire Reynolds' Scottish overseer who may have been one of the most perceptive white men in the entire series. I actually liked him a lot, even though he was a cruel overseer. He wasn't a hypocrite and understood the slaves better than his aristocratic employers, no doubt due in part to his own background as an indentured servant who worked alongside slaves in his youth. But back to Missy Anne.

Missy Anne was doing no favors to Kizzy by tearing her apart from her family and making Kizzy her enslaved servant-girl, waiting on her hand and foot, meeting her every whim and fancy under threat of whip and sale. Missy Anne, by her character, would have psychologically manipulated Kizzy into fulfilling her wishes, leaving her without any will power or ability to have a meaningful relationship with her family or anyone else for that matter. You can see it in her interactions with Kizzy in her bedroom and out at the Squire's plantation when they talk about the abolitionists. Make no mistake, being a personal slave to Missy Anne would have been a nightmare for Kizzy, not a blessing. She didn't lose anything precious by helping Noah and getting sold as a result. What's tragic is that for her attempts to resist that, she was consigned to an even worse fate, albeit with a sliver lining, as she gave birth to an incredibly strong and witty son who carried forth her ideals and principles, passing them on to equally strong children and grandchildren.

As for the whole "betrayal of trust" thing, I fail to see how this transgression disadvantages Missy Anne in any meaningful way. Missy Anne was the master's daughter/niece/what have you. She had all the privileges and power that entailed and never wanted for anything in her life, with the love of a noble British cousin to boot. She wouldn't have lost anything by it being discovered that she taught Kizzy to read. You saw what happened when Dr. Reynolds walked in and caught both of them reading the Bible. He let Missy Anne off and scolded Kizzy. He wouldn't have done *beep* to Missy Anne and she would have suffered no real stigma for having done so. To say Anne was "betrayed" and "stabbed in the back" is to fundamentally misunderstand the power structure of that entire place, the dynamic that sustained her "friendship" with Kizzy.

Kizzy lost everything when she forged the pass for Noah by using the one Missy Anne gave her. She would have gained nothing by acting otherwise, other than perhaps a lifetime of misery and psychological torture as Missy Anne's legal bitch, to put it crudely. At best, Belle would have been able to talk to Dr. Reynolds and Kizzy would have stayed on the plantation with her family and a relatively reasonable master. Yet she chose to help Noah escape to find a better life and maybe help her do the same. For she imbibed from a young age the values her father had taught her about self-respect, pride and the value of freedom. She put everything on the line for something abstract yet natural, something she was entitled to as an inhabitant of the United States of America yet she was denied by a ruling class that could not conceive of blacks as equal human beings. She sacrificed her own safety for the right to have her dignity as her own master. For which she should be praised and admired, not criticized as you would have it. Either way, Missy Anne suffered nothing, except maybe a hurt ego.

I haven't watched Roots since about 30 years ago, so I don't remember too many details. I remember my first reaction was that Sandy Duncan was bad. However, how old were these characters supposed to be? IIRC they were both young girls, I want to say younger than 13. Children don't fully comprehend the consequences of their actions, even after an adult explains things to them. That's why we call them children.

burn and lynch her.