Summary Of White Trash By Nancy Isenberg

America was built on the notion that everyone should be united and everyone is equal, the issue of class, however, proves that no one is united in the aspect of income levels and there are many levels of inequality amongst various classes. In the novel, White Trash, Nancy Isenberg uncovers the 400 year untold history of class in America. The reality, in the issue of class, is that class levels are very relevant in our society today and do shape how people are perceived in society. The goal ideals of America are that people have the opportunity to achieve their far fetched goals with hard work and dedicated, it’s the “American Dream.” Although those ideals are great, the truth of the matter is that when the Americas were colonized, a majority of colonists were criminals or people of the very lower class, impoverished areas of Britain at the time. Therefore, it was nearly inevitable that there would be “waste” people, who were impoverished, landless, poor, or criminal whites. These people really had no control over the success of their lives due to many factors. For example, they were coming over to a country which was not settled, they really had no way to gain land, money, or success. Many people would look to move south or go further from the people who had prior access to land.
North Carolina was right between a successful Virginia and a slaveholding wealthy South Carolina. Isenberg speaks of North Carolina as “a renegade territory and a swampy refuge for the poor and landless.” These people who chose to settle in areas like North Carolina, really had no resources to fund a successful life. The were often known as “dirt poor Southerners” who lived on the edges of successful plantations but had no wealth of their own. Although many people settled in the South, many often went West on hopes for land and success in a new, unsettled