The epic tale of winning author Alex Haley's ancestors portrayed in the acclaimed a dozen hour mini-series Roots, was told in his 1976 bestseller Roots: The Saga of an American Family. The docu-drama covers a time period of history that concludes throughout post-Civil War United States and begins in Gambia. This 1977 miniseries eventually won 9 Emmy awards, a Golden Globe award, and a Peabody award, and still stands as the most watched miniseries at U.S. history.