Americans who you might say have been jerked around (7)
I believe the answer is:
yankees
'americans' is the definition.
(Yankee can informally mean an American)
'you might say have been jerked around' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'you' could be 'ya' (non-standard spelling as in 'see ya later') and 'ya' is present in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'who' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for yankees that I've seen before include "Americans who fought for the north in civil war" , "rebellious ex- colonists" , "Union troops" , "Americans (sl.)" , "Ball-players" .)