The Willie Lynch letter or speech has become a notable lexicon in the black community. Although the letter is a hoax the experience is real. THE document has been proven to be untrue because it was said that Willie Lynch addressed an audience of slave owners on the bank of the James River in Virginia in1712 that he discovered the secret to controlling black slaves within the colony. Willie Lynch was not born until 1742 thirty years after the alleged delivery of the speech.
Words in red are 20th century words
"Gentlemen, I greet you here on the bank of the James River in the year of ourLord one thousand seven hundred and twelve. First, I shall thank you, the gentlemen of the Colony of Virginia, for bringing me here. I am here to help you solve some of your problems with slaves. Your invitation reached me on my modest plantation in the West Indies where I have experimented with some of the newest and still the oldest methods of control of slaves. Ancient Rome would envy us if my program were implemented. As our boat sailed south on the James River, named for our illustrious King, whose version of the Bible we cherish. I saw enough to know that your problem is not unique.While Rome used words of woods as crosses for standing human bodies along its highways in great numbers you are here using the tree and the rope on occasion. I caught the whiff of a dead slave hanging from a tree a couple of miles back. You are not only losing a valuable stock by hangings, you are having uprisings, slaves are running away, your crops are sometimes left in the fields too long for maximum profit, you suffer occasional fires, your animals are killed. Gentlemen, you know what your problems are: I do not need to elaborate.
I am not here to enumerate your problems, I am here to introduce you to a method of solving them. In my bag here, I have a fool proof method for controlling your Black slaves. I guarantee everyone of you that if installed correctly it will control the slaves for at least 300 hundred years.My method is simple. Any member of your family or your overseer can use it. I have outlined a number of differences among the slaves: and I take these differences and make them bigger. I use fear, distrust, and envy for control purposes. These methods have worked on my modest plantation in the WestIndies and it will work throughout the South. Take this simple little list of differences, and think about them. On top of my list is ‘Age’, but it is there only because it starts with an ‘A’: the second is ‘Color’ or shade, there is intelligence, size, sex, size of plantations, status on plantation, attitude of owners, whether the slave live in the valley, on hill, East, West, North, South, have fine hair, coarse hair, or is tall or short. Now that you have a list of differences.
I shall give you an outline of action-but before that I shall assure you that distrust is stronger than trust and envy is stronger than adulation, respect, or admiration. The Black slave after receiving this indoctrination shall carry on and will become self re-fueling and self generating for hundreds of years, maybe thousands. Don't forget you must pitch the old Black male vs. the young Black male, and the young Black male against the old Black male. You must use the dark skin slaves vs. the light skin slaves and the light skin slaves vs. the dark skin slaves. You must use the female vs. the male, and the male vs. the female. You must also have your white servants and overseers distrust all Blacks, but it is necessary that your slaves trust and depend on us. They must love, respect and trust only us. Gentlemen, these kits are your keys to control. Use them. Have your wives and children use them, never miss an opportunity. If used intensely for one year, the slaves themselves will remain perpetually distrustful.
Thank you, gentlemen."
There are a number of terms in the alleged 1712 Lynch speech that are undoubtedly anachronisms (i.e. words that are out of their proper historical time period). Here are a few of the words in the speech that were not used until the 20th century:
Lynch speech: “In my bag here, I have a fool proof method for controlling your Black slaves.”
Anachronisms: “Fool proof” and “Black” with an uppercase “B” to refer to people of African descent are of 20th century origin. Capitalizing“Black” did not become a standard from of writing until the late 1960s.
Lynch speech: “The Black slave after receiving this indoctrination shall carry on and will become self refueling and self generating for hundreds of years.”
Anachronism: “Re-fueling” is a 20th century term which refers to transportation. Generating is also current language.
William Lynch is invited from the “West Indies” (with no specific country indicated) to give only a short eight-paragraph speech. The cost of such a trip would have been considerable, and for the invited speaker to give only general remarks would have been highly unlikely. We are led to believe that Lynch was a British slaveowner in the “West Indies,” yet he does not write in British style. The letter says ”color” in the American form instead of the British form “colour”
This letter was never mentioned by anyone in the 18th or 19th centuries, and that the“speech” itself clearly indicates that it was composed in the late 20th century. Although the letter is a myth, the contents are very truthful. It is believed that some one in the 20th century wrote it by researching behaviors of the enslaved people (house vs field slave) and how those same behaviors continue thus creating the slave culture. Although many Blacks are beginning to love their people there are still those who do not. Yes we have black on black crimes but statistic show there are more white on white crimes today.
WORDS that may be a modern psychological game being played on unsuspecting believers:
WILLIE LYNCH.. “Will Lynch,” or “Will he Lynch"
PICNIC…Pic a Nigger. Although it is denied that the name does not mean "pick-a-nigger,""pick-a-nig," or similar racist phrases. But almost 4,000 blacks who were lynched between 1882 and 1962 were lynched in settings that are appropriately described as picnic-like. Men brought their wives and children to the events posed for commemorative photographs, and purchased souvenirs of the occasion as if they had been at a company picnic."
