Roots: The Saga of an American Family Chapters 81-85 Summary

Kunta is observing Missy Anne teach Kizzy how to read with a mixture of pride and fear. Still, Anne's been visiting much less frequently lately.
On her sixteenth birthday, however, Anne rushes over to the plantation, telling Massa Waller that her mom called off her party. Massa Waller promises to hold it at his place instead.
Kizzy helps her prepare the party, but Anne ignores her as soon as guests arrive. Kizzy's crushed.
A while later, Bell tells Kunta that Kizzy is acting sick. Kunta doesn't think they're dealing with an illness, however: he simply thinks she's dealing with womanly things.
To this end, Kunta has decided that Noah would make a suitable mate for Kizzy. He decides to help "nature [...] take its course" in whatever subtle way he can (81.34).

Bell is yelling at Kizzy for flirting with Noah, but Kunta can't help but be secretly excited—provided there was indeed no hanky-panky going on, of course.
One day, Noah approaches Kunta with a question. He wants to know about Kunta's escape attempts because he wants to run away himself.
Kunta gives him a few words of warning, but doesn't want to stamp out the kid's spirit. Noah tells him that he will buy Kizzy's freedom when he gets to the North.

Several months later, Noah goes missing, and the task falls to Kunta to inform the Massa what's up. He decides to wait a day before taking action.
Noah doesn't return by then, so Kunta drives Massa Waller to the sheriff. Massa Waller still seems not to believe that Noah ran away, but he gives the kid's description to patrollers anyway.
The sheriff drops by the plantation that Saturday, but doesn't have Noah with him. What's going on?
Bell runs to Kunta in a panic—they're taking Kizzy away. Apparently she had forged the Massa's signature on a travelling pass for Noah.
Bell and Kunta are so frantic that they burst into the Massa's drawing room, which is strictly forbidden. There's nothing they can do, however.
After the sheriff drags Kizzy away in a cart, Kunta goes into his cabin and upends his gourd, sending all "662 pebbles" scattering across the floor (83.80).

Kizzy is sitting in the dark of a cabin, where she'd been dropped off directly from the wagon. She has no idea where she is.
Suddenly, a white man lurches through the door, stinking of liquor. The details are a bit too horrendous to get into, but he rapes Kizzy.
Afterwards, Kizzy lies "feeling as if she were suspended in midair" (84.7). She thinks about how Noah pressured her into forging his travel pass, and how Missy Anne had abandoned her.
The door opens again and Kizzy panics, but it's thankfully a black woman who introduces herself as Miss Malizy, the cook.
Malizy immediately knows what the Massa did to Kizzy—he had done the same to her when she was younger.
She explains that Massa Tom Lea (that's his name) was born poor, but made a bunch of money from cockfighting.
This farm's a lot smaller than the Waller plantation, however. Besides Malizy, the only other slaves there are Uncle Mingo, who works with the gamecocks, Sister Sarah, and Uncle Pompey.

Kizzy's pregnant. She gives birth to the baby nine months later, and is disappointed to see that he has light, "pecan-colored" skin, which is evidence of his fatherhood (85.8).
Massa Lea continues raping Kizzy even as the baby sleeps in the room. To make things worse, he decides to name the child himself: George, after the first slave he ever owned.
As Kizzy falls to sleep, she vows to pass down her African heritage to George, just as Kunta had done for her.