Truth about Willie Lynch...

Factual Questions
1

Hello Cecil and all!,

I ‘d like to get some info on the story about whether Willie Lynch (and his slave letter)is at all true or was it was something the government(CIA,FBI)came up with during the 60’s? I am familiar with Lyndon B Johnsons’ signing of the Civil Rights Bill because he supposedly thought that the next generation of Blacks during that time would forget the sacifices others had made to achieve a level of equality in the USA and lose pride in themselves. Blacks had their own restaurants, hotels, movie theaters,gas stations,refineries,banks,clothing stores,taxi cab companies,etc because they were not allowed in white establishments. Long gone for example are the Negro Leagues as well as their teams and a few of Historically Black Colleges and Universities are barely hanging on.

So… is there any truth to the Willie Lynch story??

2

Well, really … you’re going to have to tell us that story, or give some link to it, before you are likely to get any answer.

3

I can’t answer the OP, but 2 seconds of Googling got me this.

4

Full Text of the alleged Willie Lynch Speech, 1712:

"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."

It kind of describes the modern U.S.A. in general- All people.

5

It seems obvious the quote is a fake – there are several words that either didn’t exist in 1712 or didn’t have the meaning used in the quote: “kits,” “fool proof” (first usage: 1909), “refueling” (“refuel” dates from 80 years later and “refueling” as a noun from 1893), and “pitch” (not used in this meaning – to persuade – until 1943).

Also, slaves were controlled by beatings rather than by hangings (for the reasons given in the speech). Lynchings were not widespread until after Emancipation.

Because of this, the speech was written by someone in the 20th century.

6

I was sure this was discussed on Snopes as being fake, but couldn’t find it any longer. (And in the time I spent searching, Reality Chuck was quicker.)

This site calls it

7

Had never seen this before, and aside from the word choice problems mentioned by RealityChuck, from a first look it sure doesn’t read like anything from the first half of the 18th century. Compare it to anything by Defoe, Richardson, Swift, and Fielding and you’d come away with a feeling that it belongs 150 - 200 years later.

8

Exactly, It seems like something written in the 1960’s, propaganda.