Roots: The Complete Miniseries Season 1 Episode 8

In the dramatic conclusion of the miniseries, the Civil War has ended with the surrender of the south and freedom for the slaves. However the economically devastated plantations still have a need for workers, but few have the money to pay wages for what was once done for free. Thus the system of sharecropping is born, eventually trapping Tom and his family in a life of perpetual labor. Added to this burden are vicious "night riders" who burn and pillage plantations at night, terrorizing the newly freed slaves and further hindering their ability to farm and pay off their debts. But in the midst of a seemingly never-ending cycle of despair, Chicken George returns, announcing his purchase of land in Tennessee, and devising a plan that would allow them all to safely leave their sharecropping plantation in Virginia, and settle as free men and women on their own land.