The period in view falls under the early 18 th century, where the Elizabethan English was the prevalent manner of expression. Lynch sounded more out of touch with the times in certain aspects of the letter. He must have been living way ahead of his times because the word never referred to African Americans or blacks as an ethnic nationality until two centuries afterward. The letter was uploaded to the University of Missouri, St.
Louis site in the early s. Being a researcher at the Thomas Jefferson Research Center of the university, Anne set out to discover the veracity of the claims. She stumbled on the letter while reading the St. Louis Black Pages and decided to upload it to create engagements and academic discussions. Anne concludes that there has been no basis to confirm whether the Willie Lynch letter is factual.
However, from discussion with historians and other experts, she has found that the letter is only a hoax. Louis Black Pages, he contacted the publisher, Howard Denson. Willie Lynch claims that age, color, and gender are three factors that could help keep slaves under perpetual control for centuries does not provide a basis to believe the letter was genuine.
People who did not have such color gradations as in our time and still maintained the near absolute African respect for age. However, such a divisionism tendency might be more accurate of the generations in the late 18 th to 19 century. Meaning the letter could only have come from a later period than the set time and is, therefore, a fabrication. Media was full of publications and programs detailing almost all the significant newsworthy occurrences before, during, and after the slave era. But this document purported to be of importance to the propagation of slavery did not pop up until the s.
You must also have a white overseer who distrusts 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 our 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. I ask this question; in are the teachings of the Willie Lynch Letter still applicable?
Do we distrust each other? Do we treat each other differently because of skin shade or hair texture? I remember a personal experience where many years ago I interviewed with a major wealth management firm in Atlanta. It said there are no historical records of him or the book he wrote. Because we are "Truth centric" if anyone can give us some facts, we would be most grateful. Email us with any corroborated information. Also, we will publish any information on this page that intelligently addresses the "Willie Lynch" subject.
Below are the "unvarnished" responses from people who have reviewed this page about the Willie Lynch speech. I happened upon your website and did some research on the speech and this is what I came up with: "There's been quite a bit of hubbub recently over the origin of the word "lynch".
We addressed this word some time ago, in Issue 11 , where we stated that the word derives from the name of one [Captain] William Lynch - , who made a name for himself by forming a vigilante group to uphold order in his town.
The earliest reference to Captain Lynch being the namesake of the word lynch comes from A. Ellicott, in , who wrote "Captain Lynch just mentioned was the author of the Lynch laws so well known and so frequently carried into effect some years ago in the southern States in violation of every principle of justice and jurisprudence" from A.
Ellicott by V. Mathews, Apparently, Captain Lynch's vigilante tribunal was first convened some time between and The true identity of the Lynch who gave his name to the English verb is not so much in question now as are the details of his life. There is a speech attributed to William Lynch which has been circulated on the internet and elsewhere, and which even Louis Farrakhan referred to at the Million Man March of October 16, By quoting extensively from the "Willie Lynch" speech, Mr.
The provenance of this speech has been the subject of much scholarly and not-so-scholarly debate. Second, the author was not at all successful at steering clear of very specific anachronisms. We'll name only the most glaring word-choice errors: fool-proof, used in the speech, actually dates from only The noun program is not used in the sense found in this speech until the s.
Self-refueling is an utter anachronism, as the term refueling did not arise until the early 20th century. Use of installed when referring to something other than a person did not first occur until the midth century. Moreover, attitude did not refer to anything other than a physical position until the midth century. Third, a speaker would hardly need to so carefully identify the date and place of his speech, nor would he be likely to refer to King James as "our illustrious King, whose version of the Bible we cherish", unless he were a person of the s making a clumsy attempt at writing a fake speech from the early 18th century.
We cannot imagine why the writer introduces the theme of "James Only someone creating a fake would need to try to establish a date for the speech within the fake itself.
And, by the way, James was long-dead by , the monarch of that era being Queen Anne. Finally, there is no evidence that a William Lynch from a "modest plantation" in the West Indies ever existed.
There is, however, plenty of evidence for the existence of Captain William Lynch of Pittsylvania, Virginia, whom we have identified as the probable source of the verb lynch, and who was born fifty years after the date given in the speech above. There are other obvious characteristics of the speech which render it a 20th-century creation.
Some of these are discussed at a web site devoted to the subject and created by Anne Taylor, collection development librarian at the University of Missouri-St. By the way, Ms. Taylor seems to be one of the first to have posted the speech on the internet. She obtained it from the publisher of a free publication in St.
Louis, The St. Louis Black Pages, dated but published in This is the earliest reference we've been able to find to the Willie Lynch speech in print. We think it's time to send Willie Lynch's speech to the urban legends department.
For information on another attempt to revise history using etymology, see our discussion of the origin of the word picnic. Regards, Paisley Demby, with email contact information above Click here to learn more about this authentic Gullah resource Gullah. If we need whatever proof of what happened in the past, all we have to do is look at ourselves right now and the condition within which we are. God bless, Marjorie Aime.
Why would a person be invited from the West Indies to Virginia just to deliver an 8-paragraph speech? Back then, such a voyage would have been too strenuous and expensive for this, especially from an unknown person, especially when letter-writing was still the main form of long-distance communication?
Of course, Lynch could have been in Virginia on business just before being spontaneously invited to speak. Still, if there had been a William Lynch whose word was so valued that he should deliver such a short speech in person rather than in writing, then certainly his speech would have been reprinted and commented upon in the local newspapers. Also, he claims to want to give an "outline of action," yet no such plan is clearly given.
It seems that a person who travels from the West Indies to Virginia for a speech would have elaborated more. Thirdly, in paragraph 6, the author writes that "distrust is stronger than trust," yet only 5 sentences later, contradicts himself, saying, "it is necessary that your slaves trust and depend on us. Why the switch in subjects from 3rd to 2nd person? Why not mention at least 2 or 3 methods of using dark-skinned slaves against light-skinned ones, and vice versa?
Contradiction and lack of detail make me leery of any claims that this "speech" is not a hoax. Furthermore, the obvious stab at the sore points in African-American psyche, such as gender and facial feature issues, makes me believe it was written for a contemporary audience, since "female vs.
I would have been stirred by these paragraphs, had they been honestly presented as a statement of opinion about how some slaveholders helped - purposely or inadvertently - to hurt the black community, regardless of the slavery itself.
But now I, as a member of the African-American community, feel betrayed by someone who has the audacity to present such unbelievable, falsely disillusioned, undocumented speech as accurate and enlightening on a day during which our community wanted to display and confirm its hope, pride, enlightenment and strength.
Sincerely, Debra Cloud Kirchenstr. L lived and held this speech. About the speech, I do not know. But even when he did not hold such a speech - when this speech is only fictional, the history is real and terrible and the spirit of a Willie Lynch is still alive all around the world.
This speech, whenever it was written, it doesn't matter. The speech exists and expresses the feelings of many "superior" people, regardless their color, race, sex, age. And that should be shocking enough. Yours, Christine ,. No evidence of there being such a person has been discovered. The "speech" is a modern fabrication, it has become an urban myth. The truth is bad enough.
We don't need ugly myths to perpetuate the ugly legacy of slavery. I am a black man that lives within the truth and reality that was proposed through that strategic "fictional" speech. Who cares if it is or isn't true? It only shows a conclusion of a "beginning" in theory. I read the speech initially with anger obviously , but in the end, I saw the speech as a way to open my eyes as a young male to change my thinking toward my race and my fellow man.
True enough, I see that anger could be concluded at the thought of some person writing something like this, but what is it really doing? Making me want to kill another brother. African- American people need to see that despite the theories that the Willie Lynch writing may have, they do paint a very accurate! Whites especially in America also need to see that their heritage was not this squeaky clean, I came from across seas and made a humble living without the use of slave labor mentality. The speech is and I think in theory was produced to open eyes.
I wouldn't be surprised if a black man wrote it. Daialogue DiCaprio. What would motivate a White man to be interested in Black History? The whole point of having it, is to let people who haven't read it feel what the man was saying.
By taking words out trying not to offend someone, you take away the impact of what the thought process was during that time. Besides YOU are not offending anyone Willie Lynch was the author.
Lets preserve the truth If you are trying to let people FEEL the impact of someone's words It's not about offending someone YOU didn't write it. So you aren't putting yourself in the position of being a foul person. For someone who has never seen any slavery films or watched any documentaries on the subject It needs to be known just how bad a time in this country it was for US So you know I'm a college grad and I never heard that word until I was almost out of high school.
I remember watching Roots in the late 70's. I don't see how you don't understand that. That's almost like changing things in the dictionary because you don't want to offend anyone. So many Caucasians in this country are in a rush to cover up what happened or to find other terminology's to refer to what was most foul! We were even referred to as less than a man in the constitution.
Do you see what I mean???. You seem to forget The last thing you do is try and soften things up. They need to know exactly how it was. I'm not trying to blast you People act like those kind of words were never spoken. You shouldn't have to feel bad about it if you don't personally feel that way. It is a reality. People weren't walking around back then being courteous to blacks. You know it and I know it. Lets keep things in perspective.
There are kids that go around calling each other nigga and nigger. THEY are the ones I'm talking about. They use these words without realizing where it comes from and the feeling it was meant to instill. Aside from all of that
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