Willie Lynch Letter THE SPEECH
BY
WILLIE LYNCH
Gentlemen:
I greet you hereon 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 the slaves. Your invitation reached me on my modest
plantation in the West Indies where I have experimented with some of the newest
and still 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 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 valuable stock by hanging, 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 lease 300 years. My method is simple and members of your family or any
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 list of differences, think
about them. On the top of my list is “age”, but it is only there because it starts
with an “a”; the second is “color (or shade)”, there is intelligence, size, sex, size
of plantation, status of plantation, attitude of owner, whether the slaves live in
the valley, on the hill, east, west, north, south, have fine hair or coarse hair, or 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-refueling and self-generating for hundreds of years, maybe thousands.
Don’t for get you must pitch the old black, vs. the young black male and the young
black male vs. 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 also have
your white servants and overseers distrust ALL blacks, but it is necessary they
trust and depend on us. They must love, respect and trust ONLY us.
Gentlemen, these kits are your control; use them. Have your wives and children
use them, never miss an opportunity. My plan is guaranteed, and the good thing
about this plan is that if used INTENSELY for one year the slaves themselves will
remain perpetually distrustful.
Thank you gentlemen. Willie Lynch, 1712
In 1832 –Senator Henry Berry said to the Virginia House of Delegates:
We have as far as possible closed every avenue by which the LIGHT will enter the
Slaves Mind. If we could extinguish the capacity to see the LIGHT our work would
be complete. They would then be on the level with the beast of the field. And we
would be Safe.
We confess that things are some better, but we have a very long way to go.
We are still quick to talk about one another and sow hate and distrust.
LET US STOP THE HATE!! BLACK ON BLACK & WHITE & BLACK HATE.
We invite you to become a Celebrate Memphis Steward..
Let us say Thank You and show LOVE and Appreciation for the LORD and Each Other.
Let us be trust worthy and begin to trust each other more.
Let us break the shackles of pitching Hate, Distrust and Envy.
Let us stop putting down one another because of age, hair, skin, education,
weight, talents, finances, race & etc.
Love your neighbor as you love yourself
Thank you Memphians and Mid-Southerners
Barry L. Harris 9/26/05
Director;
Celebrate Memphis - GSPM
celebratememphis@yahoo.com |
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