One of the lessons my father repeatedly drove home to me and my siblings was never accept anything that's written or broadcast in the media at first glance. My freshman year psychology professor reinforced that lesson with a memorable lecture entitled 'Be A Skeptic'.As long as I have been on the Net, this Willie Lynch letter repeatedly finds its way into my e-mail inboxes, in general discourse with fellow African-Americans on and off the Net and in speeches like Minister Louis Farrakhan's 1995 Million Man March one. I just recently read a February 2008 Ebony magazine issue that refers to it in a Two Sides column debate on whether light-skinned Black people have an advantage.
When I first read it back in the late 90's. my skepticism antenna that has served me well over my lifetime was clanging loud alarm bells as I read this.
First let me post the full text of the alleged 1712 speech so y'all can read it for yourselves, if you haven't seen it yet.
The William Lynch Speech:
"Gentlemen, I greet you here on the bank of the James River in the year of our Lord 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 cords 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 [sic]. 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 West Indies 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."
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Professor Mamu Ampin also shares my skepticism on this speech along with history professor Dr. W. Jelani Cobb of Spelman College.
Both gentlemen point out some interesting things about this letter. Willie Lynch was supposed to be from the West Indies, but it wasn't specified what part of the West Indies he was from.
If Lynch exists and he was West Indian, he would be writing and speaking BRITISH English. 'Color' in British English is spelled 'colour'. This was the eyebrow raiser for me.
The reference to seeing a 'dead slave hanging from a tree is a giveaway as well. Lynching didn't become prevalent in the United States until the late 19th century. In addition, slaveowners at the time didn't refer to my ancestors as 'Black', they used the term 'Negroes' in their writings. 'Black' only gained widespread usage as a descriptive terms starting in the late 60's. There are references to 20th century travel terms such as 'refuelling' or words being used that didn't gain acceptance in modern English until well after the purported date of the speech. In addition, the South didn't become a distinct political region until well over a century after the alleged speech. All of the 13 colonies were slaveholding entities in 1712. The second largest concentration of slaves in the colonies at the time was in New York, where they suppressed multiple slave revolts, (are you reading this Kenneth Eng), including one at the time of the speech.
Neither the first hand writings about slave owner control tactics by people such as Olaudah Equiano, Mahommah Baquaqua, and Frederick Douglass or abolitionist ones either quote or mention a 'Willie Lynch Letter'.
So there's a mountain of evidence that points to this letter as a late 20th century forgery, circa 1990-1995. So the next time you see this 'Willie Lynch letter' in your e-mail box or being quoted, delete it or take that portion of the piece with a grain of salt.
While the overwhelming evidence leans to the fact that the Willie Lynch letter is a fake, what happened to my ancestors over the last 200 plus years definitely wasn't.
