Roots is today’s version of the Old South.
In actual fact, of course, no more accurate than GWTW.
Split the difference and you’re getting close to the truth, possibly.
Or, perhaps both stories are true at the same time. The life of GWTW was really led by quite a few people, but then so was that portrayed in Roots.
Gone With The Wind was heavily idealized by Margaret Mead to the point of fiction. The grand manor house and hundreds of slaves was in reality not all that common. Reality was living quarters similar for all, owner, slave and even livestock, houses had a wooden floor and windows, barns didn’t, same German double-pen log structure though. They lived similarly and worked similarly, the life was not one of ease for anybody.
Roots was utter fabrication by Alex Haley from the start and is fiction. Routine mistreatment of slaves is depicted as the norm, when even a cursory, detached look into the situation would tell you that that would be highly counterproductive. Did it happen? Yes. Was it the norm? No.