The William (or Willie) Lynch Speech (or Letter) is a text of unknown origin which drew widespread attention when it circulated throughout the Internet during the 1990s. It purports to be an address given to an audience on the bank of the James River in Virginia in 1712 regarding control of slaves within the colony. The speaker, William Lynch is said to have been a slaveowner in the West Indies, summoned to Virginia in 1712; in part due to several slave revolts in the area prior to his visit, and his alleged reputation of being an authoritarian and strict slaveowner. No provenance for the speech has ever been supplied, and the text as given below contains numerous anachronisms ("self-refueling", for example, since the word 'refueling' dates only to the early twentieth century, or "fool proof", a word not attested until the early twentieth century). For these reasons, along with others, many historians consider the Willie Lynch speech an internet hoax.[1] See also 1990s, the band Germans dancing on the Berlin Wall in late 1989, the symbol of the cold war divide falls down as the world unites in the 1990s. ... The James River at Cartersville The James River in the U.S. state of Virginia is 547. ... Official language(s) English Capital Richmond Largest city Virginia Beach Area  Ranked 35th  - Total 42,793 sq mi (110,862 km²)  - Width 200 miles (320 km)  - Length 430 miles (690 km)  - % water 7. ... // Events Treaty of Aargau signed between Catholic and Protestants. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... The Caribbean or the West Indies is a group of islands in the Caribbean Sea. ... Official language(s) English Capital Richmond Largest city Virginia Beach Area  Ranked 35th  - Total 42,793 sq mi (110,862 km²)  - Width 200 miles (320 km)  - Length 430 miles (690 km)  - % water 7. ... // Events Treaty of Aargau signed between Catholic and Protestants. ...

Text

The text of William Lynch Speech reads:

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 for control of slaves. Ancient Rome would envy us if my program is 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 wood as crosses for standing human bodies along its old highways in great numbers you are here using the tree and the rope on occasion.

I caught a whiff of a dead slave hanging from a tree a couple of miles back. You are not only losing 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 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 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", the second is "Color" or shade, there is intelligence, size, sex, size of plantations, status on plantation, attitude of owners, whether the slaves live in the valley, on a hill, East, West, North, South, have fine hair or 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 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 vs. the young Black male, and the young Black male against the old Black male. You must use the dark skin slave 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 opportunity. If used intensely for one year, the slaves themselves will remain perpetually distrustful.

Thank you, gentlemen.

William Lynch

According to an essay appearing in "Brother Man: The Odyssey of Black Men in America- An Anthology", Lynch was a British slave owner in the West Indies who came to the United States to tell American slave owners how to keep their slaves under control. Some attribute the terms "lynching" and "Lynch law" to Lynch's name.^[2] Reference sources, however, indicate that the etymological Captain William Lynch was born in 1742, thirty years after he supposedly delivered his speech.^[3] Still others attribute the origin of these words to Charles Lynch. Lynch mob redirects here. ... Lynch law is an extralegal means of maintaining the established social order. ... // Events January 24 - Charles VII Albert becomes Holy Roman Emperor. ... For the Charles Lynch who was Mississippis Governor, see Charles Lynch (politician). ...

Legacy

Believers in the authenticity of the William Lynch Speech see in it a critique of what they call "mental slavery" – defined as a psychological state of submissiveness rather than a physical bondage.

Lynch's alleged method used to cause hatred between the slaves was a deep division in regard to the skin tones of the slaves. "Light-skinned" blacks are believed to have fared better under the conditions of slavery given this doctrine; being allowed tasks requiring authority over other slaves, and were generally assigned to tasks within the house of the slave master himself. Conversely, the "dark-skinned" slaves were confined to the fields, performed back-breaking labor, and generally did not enjoy the privileges of the lighter-skinned slaves. This, it is contended, would have caused discontent among the slaves, thus executing Lynch's "divide and conquer" method of control. Thus, many present day divisions within the African American community could be traced from this idea. ^[4] To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Divide and conquer (derived from the Latin saying Divide et impera) can mean either: In politics and sociology, a strategy to gain or maintain power: see divide and rule In computer science, an algorithm design paradigm based on recursion: see divide and conquer (computer science). ... An African American (also Afro-American, Black American, or simply black) is a member of an ethnic group in the United States whose ancestors, usually in predominant part, were indigenous to Africa. ...

Many, however, view two imperative problems with this argument, one is that the concept of "light-skinned blacks" originates long after the alleged date of this speech (at the time, terms indicating racial mixture such as "mulatto" would have been used); the other is that it bears no resemblance to the known concerns of planters of the time. The division between "house" and "field" slaves is historically inaccurate, as slaves employed in the plantation household were a subset of non-predial slaves (others included craftsmen such as carpenters and masons) and were under closer white supervision than were the field slaves. It is worth noting that one of the most successful slave revolts in history, the Haitian Revolution, was led by a non-predial slave, Toussaint L'Ouverture. Combatants Haiti France Commanders Toussaint LOuverture Jean-Jacques Dessalines Charles Leclerc vicomte de Rochambeau Strength Regular army: up to 55,000 Volunteers: up to 100,000 Regular army: 60,000 86 warships and frigates Casualties Unknown military deaths Civilian deaths: up to 100,000 5,000-6,000 dead... François-Dominique Toussaint LOuverture François-Dominique Toussaint LOuverture, also Toussaint Bréda, Toussaint-Louverture (c. ...

Louis Farrakhan, in his open letter regarding the Millions More Movement, cites Willie Lynch's alleged scheme as an obstacle to unity among African Americans.^[5] Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. ... Millions More Movement logo The Millions More Movement was launched by a broad coalition of U.S. Black leaders to mark the commemoration of the 10th Anniversary of the historic Million Man March. ... An African American (also Afro-American, Black American, or simply black) is a member of an ethnic group in the United States whose ancestors, usually in predominant part, were indigenous to Africa. ...

See also

• African Americans
• Divide and conquer
• History of slavery in the United States
• Slavery

An African American (also Afro-American, Black American, or simply black) is a member of an ethnic group in the United States whose ancestors, usually in predominant part, were indigenous to Africa. ... Divide and conquer (derived from the Latin saying Divide et impera) can mean either: In politics and sociology, a strategy to gain or maintain power: see divide and rule In computer science, an algorithm design paradigm based on recursion: see divide and conquer (computer science). ... Slave sale in Easton, Maryland The history of slavery in the United States began soon after Europeans first settled in what in 1776 became the United States. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

References

• ↑ The Freeman Institute, Wille Lynch Speech, June 25, 2005. Accessed October 19, 2005
• ↑ The Colby Institute, William Lynch, January 3, 2003. Accessed on October 23, 2005
• ↑ Stein, Jess, ed. "Lynch law." The Random House College Dictionary. 1988 ed. ISBN 0-394-43500-1
• ↑ The Colby Institute, William Lynch, January 3, 2003. Accessed on October 23, 2005
• ↑ Farrakhan, Louis. An appeal .... The Official Site for the Millions More Movement. Accessed on October 12, 2005.

October 12 is the 285th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (286th in leap years). ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

External links

• More on William Lynch
• The first traceable publisher
• Examination of text's inaccuracies by William Jelani Cobb
• Full speech of Willie Lynch (the making of a slave)
• Movie "Animal" on IMDB, which prominently refers to the speech