White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America

In the 1500s, the two biggest promoters of American exploration were Richard Hakluyt (known as the elder) and his younger cousin of the same name. Neither ever went to the Americas. They depicted America as “empty” because its land had not been put to commercial use and was not owned (18). As a result, planters and husbandmen interested in making profits were needed there. At that time, the English associated undeveloped land with waste and, therefore, unrealized wealth. Idle people were also considered waste. The Hakluyts wanted to send the waste people, or “paupers, vagabonds, convicts, debtors, and lusty young men” (20) to work the land in the Americas. Isenberg argues that they envisioned America as “one giant workhouse” (21), with those who were considered waste people of England becoming economically useful.

England had a long history of treating poor people with contempt, referring to them as insects and monsters (22). The Hakluyts and others considered the Americas a solution to the problem of poverty. The poor—their refuse—could be sent there and could be driven by colonial masters using military-style discipline. Indeed, Jamestown, founded in 1607, exemplifies this approach. Despite widespread hunger, laws that established the death penalty for stealing food were put in place.