Divide and Conquer

The early schools, we've heard repeatedly, were frantic to avoid allowing students to band together or form connections with one another. This is understandable from two perspectives: if children are able to receive comfort from one another, they'll be harder to break; and if the older children act as one, the potential for violent rebellion is high.

Some of the methods of dividing and conquering have been discussed before, some have not. It seems to have been such an important priority that I have decided to give it its own post here. The tactics fall under two broad categories.

SEPARATION
Keep the children amongst strangers, alone and frightened. Among the stories we have heard:

Dividing the children of a tribe up and sending them to different schools.

Send children too far away from home to ever return to on foot.

Put siblings in different dorms. Make sure they do not interact. Whip those who meet with each other.

If close friendships form, transfer one or more students.

DIVISION
Make the children hate each other. Make the children hate Indians. Among the stories we have heard:

The Gauntlet (very common): when a student is punished, make the other students stand in a line and hit the "runner" as he moves down the row. The gauntlet is always run twice: the first time is the student being punished; the second time is the student whose hit was the weakest.
There is at least one confirmed case in which running the gauntlet proved to be fatal.

Randomly selecting students to choose punishments for offenders. If the punishment is deemed too lax, the matron chooses a new punishment and both children receive it.

Hiring Indian men to administer all physical discipline. This was the case at Mount Pleasant for some years. If a child was hurt, it was at the hands of another Indian.

No punishments given if an older boy sodomizes a younger. This was surprisingly common; although I suppose one could expect that violated, powerless boys would eventually act out in this manner.

Relaxed punishment for Indian-on-Indian violence.



Marlin has said that his mother grew up afraid of other Indians; it's one of the long-lasting pains that motivates his work today.

And these were children -- little kids facing adults who had detailed plans and tactics to destroy them. Go find an eight-year-old. Remind yourself how truly innocent and vulnerable they are. They didn't stand a chance.