Why was Kunta Kinte's daughter sold?

Answer 1

Per the movie Roots, Kunta Kinte's daughter, Kizzy, was sold away in her teens for forging a traveling pass for a slave boy (Noah) who wanted to run away and with whom she was in love. Kizzy had been secretly taught to read and write in her childhood by the plantation owner's niece (really daughter), Missy Anne. Noah was caught after a week on the run, dragged back to the plantation and tortured until he revealed the name of who forged the traveling pass, after which he was sold off. As punishment for forging the traveling pass for Noah, Kizzy was sold off to another plantation in North Carolina, where she was brutally and repeatedly raped by her new owner, Tom Moore, resulting in the birth of her only child, Chicken George. In the movie, Kizzy goes back to her original plantation many years later to see her parents, only to learn her mother was sold off and her father died two years later of a broken heart. In the book, Kizzy never learns the fates of her parents.

Answer 2

Kunta Kinte's daughter, Kizzy, was sold because the plantation owner wanted to punish Kunta Kinte for attempting to escape. It was a common practice during that time to use family separation as a means of control and punishment.