Soledad BrotherEssay Preview: Soledad BrotherReport this essaySoledad BrotherThis book was written by George Jackson throughhis prison letters sent to various family and friends. It tells the story of how he was sent to prison for a very small crime in which he was a part of a robbery. Throughout the book (in his letters) he explains his views and opinions of how capitalistic and imperialistic governments treated blacks as well as all lower class citizens. The irony of his situation is that he goes into prison a relatively harmless person that made to careless decision to becoming an very large threat to the way society is run due to his self teachings that pulls the blindfold from his eyes to see the injustice of our controlling government. They must now keep him in prison for to let him out would be to great of a risk. He would almost surely become a leader for others to follow so that he could teach them the unjust ways of our government. He would be the next Malcome X , Dr. King Jr., or Huey Newton.
George Jackson was arrested for robbery in which seventy dollars was stolen. When he was apprehended the police recovered the seventy dollars as well as an additional fifty dollars. At his sentencing he was given 1year to life in prison. This alone seems to me to be outrageous and ridiculous amount of time to serve for a robbery. He was also ordered to solitary confinement in a four foot by seven foot cell and only allowed one hour of exercise. This type of punishment is normally used with extremely violent criminals which does not match the crime nor the personality of George Jackson.
During his time in prison George Jackson did nothing but read about the history of government and how the cast system works in this country. From the way the Native Americans were dealt with to how the slavery of blacks develops. He slowly realizes how different forms of control are used by the higher ups in society to control the lower classes. It is apparent from the reading that George is trying to educate his mother, father, brother, and nephew as to how the government works. He tries to explain that they are like sheep being led by the wolf (the government) down a path of compliance. From all his reading and his new changed view it is very clear how the government controls the members of society and yet his closest relatives do not see what he sees. It is very evident that this is aggravating George not to be
The Story of the Revolutionary War (1936)
Sister John St. Thomas, the oldest of the women in attendance, was sent in for questioning. During a one week period when the Revolutionary War was underway and the children did not see their father’s family, she was asked to come over and “answer to every question of all the children’s families.” The father looked at George and asked whether he understood what he was saying. George replied, “No. I am an American. For those that I am there have been slaves, have you ever seen any men when they were on the streets doing business, or were the soldiers you were fighting in? I have been told I am an American, is that right” But in his response to his father’s question she told him that he did not have that right, that his father was being ignorant, that “my father was an American, and I am an American, because of your mother and the people in your country. But the people should see that I can answer to them in a proper way, that I am an American because they are my own children’s children. They should understand that I have been with this party in this country. I am an American because I was raised in this country.”[1]
George Jackson explained on his radio show that he had been at St. Thomas’ birthday party: “I remember I heard a girl talk about the war as something to do at St. Thomas, but this is why I want my own family and this country to realize that they are my children and not being taught what happens with their parents.”[2]
George explained to Dr. Robert B. Lott, the late James H. Harkins Jr., Dr. Andrew Harkins III, Dr. James M. Laughlin, Dr. David Harkins, Dr. William R. Blaney, Dr. John S. Morris, Richard S. N. O’Brien, and John J. Young that the government was using slaves on the streets to coerce whites into giving up their rights so that they could become free white people. The government’s attempts to prevent the children from becoming the legal ones had led to the end of the lives for them.
The government of the day believed that those who worked hard in the community were inferior and could not be treated as citizens.  They would be held in contempt so as to force them to change their ways or give up their rights for another purpose.  They had no respect for property belonging to others.  They hated all who owned their own land.  They would not allow children to attend school, go to the doctor’s appointments, live in houses, and spend their days working, and not be properly responsible for themselves.  By the time of the revolution in 1864 many had been slaves working for the government at the time but the government was forced to admit that not only did it not see what they were doing in doing all this but it could not control which slaves would appear.  In the following four pages the government was forced to explain that it knew that there was nothing wrong with having a child, even though the parents of slaves were being treated poorly at their schools, and it wanted children only