In the book, Annie's father was a white man; therefore Annie was a mulatto. Her daughter Easter was fathered by a white man, which made her a quarter white. Easter's daughter, Queen, was fathered by Jas. the young "massa". therefore Queen was only one eighth black. Halle Berry is half white which made her far too dark complexioned for the part and as a result, unconvincing, no matter how hard she tried. The whole theme of the book was that Queen looked white and was not accepted by the black people because of it. She was able to pass for white as long as she did not admit that she had been born a slave.
Another miscast role was Martin Sheen butchering the Irish accent. Were there no Irish actors available? I kept waiting for Mr. Sheen to deliver an Irish joke.
MOST annoying of all was the grammar - no plurals and missing verbs. "I black" "I with chile". Perhaps they spoke like this 150 years ago, but for modern audiences it would have been better to have modified the speech a little. As it was I found it irritating. I would recommend the book instead of the miniseries, which begins half way through the book.
