1516: Where are They?: How Oppression Buried Human Genius
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): Medium (Personal)
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2025/10/02
“I am, somehow, less interested in the weight of Einstein’s brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.”
That’s a good point and could be generalized over time:
Corvée laborers and enslaved workers in Pharaonic Egypt.
Debt-bonded farmers and temple dependents in Mesopotamia.
Enslaved laborers and Helots in classical Greece.
Women and metics in classical Greece.
Enslaved people and coloni in the Roman Empire.
Serfs bound to estates in medieval Europe.
Jewish and Roma communities barred from guilds and towns in medieval/early-modern Europe.
Jianmin “mean people” and most women in imperial China.
Nobi and baekjeong outcastes in Korea.
Burakumin in Tokugawa/Meiji Japan.
Dalits and Adivasi in South Asia.
Dhimmi in various Islamic empires.
Encomienda and mita Indigenous labor in Spanish America.
Plantation slaves in the Caribbean and Brazil.
Black cotton-field slaves in the American South.
Sharecroppers under Jim Crow debt peonage in post-Emancipation U.S. South.
Industrial-era child laborers in England.
Women in global pre-20th century.
Indigenous children in residential/boarding schools in Canada, the U.S., and Australia.
Black South Africans under pass laws and Bantu Education during apartheid.
Deaf communities under post-1880 oralism bans.
Roma across Europe into the 20th–21st centuries.
Muhamasheen in Yemen.
Osu among the Igbo.
Women and girls under Taliban edicts in Afghanistan now.
Therefore, not only, “Where are they?” But, what have we done?
Last updated May 3, 2025. These terms govern all In-Sight Publishing content—past, present, and future—and supersede any prior notices. In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons BY‑NC‑ND 4.0; © In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen 2012–Present. All trademarks, performances, databases & branding are owned by their rights holders; no use without permission. Unauthorized copying, modification, framing or public communication is prohibited. External links are not endorsed. Cookies & tracking require consent, and data processing complies with PIPEDA & GDPR; no data from children < 13 (COPPA). Content meets WCAG 2.1 AA under the Accessible Canada Act & is preserved in open archival formats with backups. Excerpts & links require full credit & hyperlink; limited quoting under fair-dealing & fair-use. All content is informational; no liability for errors or omissions: Feedback welcome, and verified errors corrected promptly. For permissions or DMCA notices, email: scott.jacobsen2025@gmail.com. Site use is governed by BC laws; content is “as‑is,” liability limited, users indemnify us; moral, performers’ & database sui generis rights reserved.
In-Sight Publishing 