In present-day America, there’s still a major equity gap between white and Black people. And that gap didn’t just come out of nowhere—it’s been baked into this country from the very beginning.
Whenever we talk about wealth gaps, education disparities, or even which schools get funded better, it all connects back to the blueprint laid in the Southern colonies. Black folks weren’t brought here to build a better life—they were brought here to build wealth for somebody else. Our ancestors were forced to work plantations and grow cash crops like tobacco, indigo, and, later on, cotton. They were never meant to share in the riches of the land they worked.
Land was everything back then—and honestly, it still is. If you owned land, you had money, power, and a voice. The English understood this early on. Through the Virginia Joint-Stock Company, they grabbed land from Native people fast and aggressively. As soon as they saw how much money tobacco could make, they started pushing Natives out and working the land for profit.
At first, indentured servants—mostly poor Europeans—did that work. They were promised land after their contracts ended, but the system got messy. Too many of them lived long enough to claim land and started demanding rights. Then came Bacon’s Rebellion, when poor white and Black folks rose up together. That scared the elites. So, they shifted gears and leaned into slavery—bringing over Africans they could control completely and strip of any rights.
This move reshaped the entire Southern social structure: rich white landowners at the top, then small farmers, then indentured servants, and finally, enslaved Africans at the very bottom.
And that hierarchy didn’t just fade away. It still echoes in today’s systems—where wealthy homeowners sit at the top and people of color, especially Black folks, are still fighting to get a real seat at the table.
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