Jay Villanueva
Professor Guzman
English 220
11 September 2014
Inequality in America's past
Throughout the American past, human beings have not always been treated the same. Certain peoples have been given the rights of being an American, while others have not. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl written by Linda Brent (Harriet Jacobs) shows us many different aspects of this inequal treament of peoples in America. Certain basic rights were witheld from people of black skin because of an idea that these people were inferior. Loans were from slaves to owner are not bond by any law, they are basically insolevent loans. Committing a petty crime could be fatal if the criminals skin was black. Men were literally bound like dogs and taken back to owners as if they were property. There are numerous examples of how some were exluded from the nation purely because of the color of their skin.
In Harriet Jacobs novel she expressed how differently people have been treated in the United States. In the past, simply by having pale skin, you were given rights and liberties that others were not. Although racism in America has seen many outlooks, such as native Americans and Latinos; racism towards African Americans is a clear example of how some beings in America were given rights while others were not. This xenophobia towards African American individuals was completely unjust. The way people of European decent or "whites" justified their inhuman treatment of blacks was to see them as inferior individuals.
One example of clear inequality between blacks and whites in the nation was shown through a story Harriet Jacobs discussed referring to her grandmother. Harriets' grandmother, a slave, was given permission to bake crackers at night to obtain profits to clothe herself and her children (7). Harriets grandmothers'...