During a five-week trial in federal district court, presiding U.S. District Court Judge Robert J. Ward stated, "Copying there is, period." Passages from "The African" were found stapled to a manuscript page from "Roots". However, Alex Haley maintained throughout the trial that he had not even heard of "The African" until the year after "Roots" was published, and speculated that someone else had given him the photocopied passages. After the trial, Joseph Bruchac, an instructor in black and African history at Skidmore College, stated that he had recommended Courlander's novel to Haley when he visited Skidmore in 1970. Bruchac remembered driving home three miles to fetch his own copy of "The African" and give it to Haley, who promised to read it "on the plane."