Panopticism and the Lives of

Frederick Douglass and Leonard Peltier

 

 

 

 

ERH 230, Section 1

Date Due: 19 October 2016

Date Submitted: 19 October 2016

Help Received: Cadet Peer Reviews from

Will Morris and Chandler Wyatt.

Conference with Maj. Iddings

Signed: Evan McCuaig

 

 

Prisons function because of the relationship of power between the inmates and the guards. Jeremy Bentham came up with a prison called the Panopticon. The prison was designed so that one central guard could monitor all of the inmates and the inmates would not know if they were being watched. Panopticism puts all of the power in the guards while taking it all away from the inmates. “The Gaze” is the effect, described by Michael Foucault, of constantly being watched, which includes being watched by another person or by some way of observation. Two people spent most of their lives living under “The Gaze” in a Panopticistic world. The first is Frederick Douglass. An American slave who managed to escaped to the North and became a prolific anti-slavery symbol. The second is Leonard Peltier who is a Native American currently serving time in jail for allegedly taking part in the shooting of two FBI agents. Neither Frederick Douglass nor Leonard Peltier were able to escape “The Gaze”.

To begin to understand how Panopticism affected the lives of Frederick Douglass and Leonard Peltier, it is important to know about their history and life. Frederick Douglass was born sometime around 1835 in Maryland and grew up as a slave subject to the brutality of traditions of that time. In his narrative, “The Life of Frederick Douglass”, he talks about his life growing up as a slave and the struggles he had to endure. He shared, “It was a common custom, in the part of Maryland from which I ran away, to part children from their mothers at a very early age” (Douglass 340). His mother would die when he was seven years old, and he wasn’t allowed to see her when she was sick, when she was in her final moments or when she was being buried. He also mentioned an overseer at a plantation he was at and how brutal he punished slaves. The overseer would, “…cut and slash the women’s heads so horribly, that even the master would be enraged at his cruelty…” (Douglass 342). Overseers had the responsibility of keeping track of the slaves as the work and punishing them, much like prison guards. And like prison guards, they were always watching. Later on he would live in a home that had a mistress who began teaching him to read. However, when the husband found out, he forced her to start punishing slaves for trying to learn and trying to be more than just a slave. Douglass noticed a change in her and said, “She finally became even more violent in her opposition than her husband himself. She was not satisfied with simply doing as well as he had commanded; she seemed more anxious to do better” (Douglass 367). It appears that no good came its way to Douglass. Even when it seemed that life would be getting better, it turned upside down, and he became less than a human. Between growing up under the “care” of slave owners, being under the threat of brutal punishments and not being able to trust those who initially seem to be good people, Douglass was always subject to the gaze.

Leonard Peltier is a Native American who was born in North Dakota in 1944. As a child, Peltier would find himself getting a lot of attention for being a Native American. He got into fights with other kids and caught the attention of the police. He always felt that he was being watched and being targeted for being Native American.  There was a constant pressure on him to be on his best behavior and that if he slipped up in the slightest, there would be someone waiting for it and ready to punish him. In his memoir, he talks about an incident where he got in a fight with another kid. The fight ended with him throwing a rock at the other kid and causing his head bleed. Peltier remembered that he ran back home and hid under a bed. When the cops eventually came, his grandma did what she could to calm the situation. In the end, Peltier’s grandpa had to tell him, “You’re not s’posed to rile these white folks boy, they’ll come back and get you every time” (Peltier 76). As Native Americans, they had a social pressure to stay out of the way or else white people would come and start trouble. Peltier eventually joined a Civil Rights group that advocated for Native Americans. Unfortunately, this group got tangled with another Native American group that was much more violent. There were many occasions that this opposing group would use a militia to attack those who stood against them. This struggle eventually boiled over when the reservation Peltier was living in was attacked by this opposing group and many FBI agents. This raid resulted in the deaths of two FBI agents and Peltier was blamed for their deaths and sent to prison where he is to this day. Prison has not treated Peltier very kindly. He describes prison life in one way, “As a supposed “cop killer,” I got special attention from the start. In my first jail in Canada, a special guard was stationed outside my cell throughout the night…” (Peltier 143). Peltier got a lot of attention being in jail and was never really alone. He, like in the Panopticon, always had someone watching or in his presence. Leonard Peltier was a constant subject to “the gaze” in his early life for being a Native American and in his later life for being a “cop killer”.

Frederick Douglas and Leonard Peltier have spent most of their lives being watched by others. Frederick Douglass was a slave in Maryland who was constantly under the threat of being punished. Leonard Peltier grew up as a minority who was always on the receiving end of unfair treatment be other citizens and the police and eventually would spend the next 35 years and counting in prison. In both cases, these men were subject to “The Gaze” in a panopticistic world that refuses give anyone some space. They were both subject to the people in positions of power and were helpless to defend themselves.

 

 

Works Cited:

 

Douglass, Frederick. “Chapter 1,7.” Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass an American Slave. U.S.A.: Anti Slavery Office, 1845. 340,340,367.

 

Peltier, Leonard, and Harvey Arden. Prison Writings: My Life Is My Sun Dance. New York: St. Martin’s, 1999. 76, 143. Print.