Chicken George

History[]

Chicken George's childhood[]

George was born into slavery in the winter of 1806 in Caswell, North Carolina to Kizzy and her master, Tom Lea, who named him "George" after his first slave, George. He was conceived when his mother was repeatedly raped by her new master after her arrival on the Lea Plantation from Virginia. Even though her son was born because of rape, Kizzy still loved and raised George.

At age 12, Lea moved George out of his mother's cabin to live at the gamecock pen where Uncle Mingo lives and trains fighting roosters for the master. Around age 14 or 15, George started to travel with Moore and Mingo, where he won in his first cockfight. At age 18, Lea promotes George as the new head trainer for cock fighting as he sees George's potential to bring him wealth and fame. Uncle Mingo gives George a black derby hat with rooster feathers that would later became his trademark along with the green scarf. He earns the nickname "Chicken George" for his colorful, flamboyant personality and his amazing cock-fighting skills.

Although he was a ladies man, he met his future wife Matilda, a strong faithful Christian slave woman who once preached the gospel at freed blacks which scared them off where they were partying. They married and have eight children, including Tom and Lewis Murray.

Chicken George Years[]

Chicken George, the No. #1 Cock fighter in Caswell County[]

Now a successful and number one cock fighter of Caswell County, Chicken George travelled across the southern states of America with Tom Lea, winning most, although he was conned out of money from cockfights. Due to George's amazing skills in cockfighting, he and Master Moore became best friends.

Nat Turner's Rebellion[]

One day, after winning a match in cockfights, George had a conversation with former slave about freedom, the latter told George that being free is better than anything. On their way back home, Chicken George driving & Massa Lea sleeping in the back of the wagon, they were confronted by three aristocrats. They asked George if he knows about a slave named Nat Turner and threatened to kill him if he does, George replied he didn't know anything about Turner's rebellion. He was luckily saved by his master, whom the aristocrats insulted for being drunk. When they came back to the plantation, Mrs Moore, scared and paranoid, fired shots at George (one of them hits George in the right arm) after she thought he killed her husband. Kizzy warns Chicken George that he can't trust Massa Lea as his friend because he is a "toubob." George tells Kizzy that Massa Lea is his friend. However Lea bursts into George's family cabin with a shotgun threatening the family that if he sees any rebellion from the slaves, he will shoot them, He then orders them to retrieve everything to the Big House. This caused George to figure a way to buy freedom for his family and himself. Things went back to normal after Nat Turner was caught and hanged. George and Matilda discovered a dead remnant of Turner, Matilda asked George why the dead remnant is smiling.

Shocking Truth and Betrayal[]

Small untruth here, slavery was ruled to be unlawful in England as far back as 1706 (Smith v. Browne & Cooper) so could not be sent back to England aged 27. On his way to visit Tom Lea, Squire James sees Chicken George and his wife Matilda picking cotton. James tells George that he and Sir Eric Russell issued a challenge to Tom Lea in cockfighting and he also says that he would buy George to train other cock fighters and would free him and his family in five years, however Master Moore refused Squire James to buy George, which infuriates Chicken George making him understand that his mother was right about never to trust a crooked white man like Master Moore. Angered and betrayed by Tom Lea for denying any chance of freedom, George went back to the woods and picked up a gun from the dead remnant to kill Tom Moore, but Kizzy prevented him by revealing that Tom Lea was his father. Later, George confronted his father, saying how could Moore deny him, his own child, of his chance of being free. Master Moore replies that he has twenty children besides George in different counties by slave black women whom the master raped during his/their trips. When George told Moore that he wasn't fighting his chickens anymore, Master Moore threatens George that he would sell George's son, Tom, or Matilda which gives George no choice but to continue cockfighting for Master Moore.

Fight against Sir Russell; Heading to England []

Before their match (which would be their last match together) against Squire James and Sir Eric Russell, Master Moore promises George that he would give him his freedom if they win their match against Sir Russell. Back on good terms with Tom Lea, their chickens fight Sir Russell's chickens. During break, Tom Lea bet $20k against Sir Russell, Russell accepts, however one of Tom Lea's chickens loses to Russell's chicken. Tom Lea lends Chicken George to Sir Russell in order to pay the debts. Before he heads off to England to train other cock fighters, George encourages his family to stay strong and told the story of the African, known as Kunta Kinte, his grandfather. George would train other cock fighters for Sir Russell and after over 20 years of servitude to Sir Russell, Russell sends George back to America.

In 1861, Chicken George, aged 54, returned to the Moore Plantation only to find out that his family (except Kizzy) were sold off to Sam Harvey's Plantation in Alamance County, North Carolina. George found one of his slave friends sitting in the grass, he asked her where his family was and she told him she knew where his mother was, and took him to a grave. George visited Massa Lea for one last time, he was stunned that his father had become a lonely, drunken, desperate man. Tom Lea told George that his mother, Kizzy, had passed away last spring. Chicken George reminded the master about the promise Tom Moore made of George's freedom. Although Master Moore promised George that the latter would get his emancipation paper once he returned, he pretended that he never made a promise to his son. Then Massa Lea tried to persuade George to stay and help his daddy in fighting chickens again, George then replied that he didn't have a daddy. After the conversation, Tom Lea kept his words and gave the emancipation paper to George, making George the first member of the Kinte family to become a free man. After George received his emancipation paper, he left the Moore Plantation in search of his family. Chicken George reunites his family, however, due to a law that if any free man stays sixty days in a slave state, he or she will become a slave again. George circumvents this and pretends to be a giant black chicken once sixty days have passed to stay with his family. This allowed George to share the family tradition oral history with his son, Tom Harvey, about himself, his mother Kizzy, and his grandfather, the African, Kunta Kinte. After the Civil War and slavery ended in 1865, Chicken George reunited his family and told them about a new place in Tennessee that he settled, for them to live. Chicken George and his family devised a plan to scare Evan Brent who has been terrorizing the family since slavery ended. When they had Evan tied to a tree and Tom almost whipped him, George told Brent that if he tries to threaten his family again, George would kill him. Before they leave, his wife Matilda reminisced that all the sufferings and their lives in different plantations through slavery, it was never their home. George and the family leave North Carolina to start a new life at Henning, Tennessee. During their trip, Matilda told her husband that his mother, Kizzy and his grandfather, Kunta Kinte, are smiling above from the heavens.

Later Years[]

The family arrived at Henning, Tennessee and founded the New Hope Church. His wife Matilda died in 1883 after an argument between her son, Tom and his daughter Elizabeth..

George became depressed and embittered after his wife's death.

Chicken George was badly burned by fire in an accident and died shortly after, in 1890.

Trivia[]

"Chicken" George was portrayed in 1977 television miniseries, Roots, by multi-talented actor, Ben Vereen, Ave Long in 1979's Roots: The Next Generation, and by British newcomer Rege-Jean Page in the remake.
He is the sole born of the third generation of the Kunta Kinte lineage; however he never met his African grandfather.
He became the first member of the Kinte family to earn his freedom.
In the miniseries, when Chicken George was about to kill Master Moore, his mother Kizzy told George that the master was his father, he was in his mid-thirties by that time. While in the novel, Kizzy, infuriated by thirteen-year-old George having moved out of their cabin to train at the game pen by Master Lea, abruptly revealed that Tom Lea was his father.
Despite being half white, George had darker skin. The recessive genes of his father, Tom, came out in the later Kinte lineage; with Bertha (6th generation) and Alex Haley (7th generation).
In the novel, as a son of Kizzy and Tom Lea, Chicken George was an light-skinned bi-racial "sasso-borro", due to having two African and Caucasian ancestries.
In the novel, Massa Lea did not keep promises to George, which led to George outsmarting his father.