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The William (or Willie) Lynch Speech (or Letter) is an address purportedly delivered by William Lynch
William Lynch

Captain William Lynch egg was a man from Pittsylvania County, Virginia, who claimed to be the source of the terms "lynch law" and "lynching". He is not the William Lynch who allegedly made the William Lynch Speech in 1712, as the date on this apocryphal speech precedes Lynch's birth by thirty years....
 to an audience on the bank of the James River
James River (Virginia)

The James River in the U.S. state of Virginia is a long river, including its Jackson River source. It drains a Drainage basin comprising . The watershed includes about 4% open water and an area with a population of 2.5 million people ....
 in Virginia
Virginia

The Commonwealth of Virginia is an United States U.S. state on the East Coast of the United States of the Southern United States. The state is known as the "Old Dominion" and sometimes as "Mother of Presidents", because it is the birthplace of Lists of United States Presidents by place of birth#By state....
 in 1712 regarding control of slaves
Slavery

Slavery is a form of forced labor where a person is compelled to Labor for another . Slaves are held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase, or birth, and are deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to receive Remuneration in return for their labor....
 within the colony. The letter purports to be a verbatim account of a short speech given by a slave owner, in which he tells other slave masters that he has discovered the "secret" to controlling enslaved Africans by setting them against one another.






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The William (or Willie) Lynch Speech (or Letter) is an address purportedly delivered by William Lynch
William Lynch

Captain William Lynch egg was a man from Pittsylvania County, Virginia, who claimed to be the source of the terms "lynch law" and "lynching". He is not the William Lynch who allegedly made the William Lynch Speech in 1712, as the date on this apocryphal speech precedes Lynch's birth by thirty years....
 to an audience on the bank of the James River
James River (Virginia)

The James River in the U.S. state of Virginia is a long river, including its Jackson River source. It drains a Drainage basin comprising . The watershed includes about 4% open water and an area with a population of 2.5 million people ....
 in Virginia
Virginia

The Commonwealth of Virginia is an United States U.S. state on the East Coast of the United States of the Southern United States. The state is known as the "Old Dominion" and sometimes as "Mother of Presidents", because it is the birthplace of Lists of United States Presidents by place of birth#By state....
 in 1712 regarding control of slaves
Slavery

Slavery is a form of forced labor where a person is compelled to Labor for another . Slaves are held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase, or birth, and are deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to receive Remuneration in return for their labor....
 within the colony. The letter purports to be a verbatim account of a short speech given by a slave owner, in which he tells other slave masters that he has discovered the "secret" to controlling enslaved Africans by setting them against one another. The speaker, William Lynch, is said to have been a slaveowner in the West Indies, summoned to Virginia
Virginia

The Commonwealth of Virginia is an United States U.S. state on the East Coast of the United States of the Southern United States. The state is known as the "Old Dominion" and sometimes as "Mother of Presidents", because it is the birthplace of Lists of United States Presidents by place of birth#By state....
 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.

The text of the speech appeared on the internet as early as 1993, when a reference librarian at the University of Missouri–St. Louis
University of Missouri–St. Louis

The University of Missouri?St. Louis is one of four universities in the University of Missouri System. Established in 1963, it is the newest university in the UM System....
 posted the document on the library's Gopher server. The librarian later revealed that she had obtained the document from the publisher of a local newspaper, The St. Louis Black Pages, in which the narrative had recently appeared. The librarian elected to leave the document on the Gopher server, as she believed that "even as an inauthentic document, it says something about the former and current state of African America," but added a warning about the provenance
Provenance

Provenance, from the French provenir, "to come from", means the origin, or the wiktionary:Source, of something, or the history of the ownership or location of an object, The term was originally mostly used of works of art, but is now used in similar senses in a wide range of fields, including science and computing....
 of the document.

The text 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, historian William Jelani Cobb of Spelman College
Spelman College

Spelman College is a four-year Liberal arts colleges in the United States Women's colleges in the United States located in Atlanta, Georgia, Georgia , United States....
 believes that the Willie Lynch speech is an internet hoax.

Popular references


Louis Farrakhan
Louis Farrakhan

Louis Farrakhan , is the Supreme Minister and National Representative of the Nation of Islam and Elijah Muhammad. He is an advocate for African American interests, and a critic of American society....
, in his open letter regarding the Millions More Movement
Millions More Movement

The Millions More Movement was launched by a broad coalition of African American leaders to mark the commemoration of the 10th Anniversary of the Million Man March....
, cites Willie Lynch's scheme as an obstacle to unity among African American
African American

African Americans or Black Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have origins in any of the Black people populations of Africa....
s.

In the 2005 direct-to-video
Direct-to-video

A film that is released direct-to-video is one which has been film release to the public on home video formats before or without being released in movie theaters or broadcast on television....
 film Animal
Animal (2005 film)

Animal is a 2005 direct-to-video film starring Ving Rhames, Terrence Howard, Jim Brown and Chazz Palminteri. It was directed by David J. Burke and written by David C....
, the Speech is used as a plot device to bring together the two main characters, and passed on from Father to Son to Grandson.

In the 2007 movie The Great Debaters
The Great Debaters

The Great Debaters is a 2007 film directed by and starring two-time Academy Awards winner Denzel Washington and produced by Oprah Winfrey and her production company, Harpo Productions....
, Denzel Washington
Denzel Washington

Denzel Hayes Washington, Jr. is an United States actor and film director. He has garnered much critical acclaim for his work in film since the 1990s, including for his portrayals of real-life figures, such as Steve Biko, Malcolm X, Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, Melvin B....
's character Melvin B. Tolson
Melvin B. Tolson

Melvin Beaunorus Tolson was an United States Modernist poetry, educator, columnist, and politician. His work concentrated on the experience of African Americans and includes several poetic histories....
 refers to the Willie Lynch speech as being the definition of the black slave.

The Willie Lynch speech continues to appear in popular culture, with articles, books, and videos being produced purporting to teach people to deprogram themselves and "turn off your Willie Lynch Chip".

On the hip-hop group Black Star
Black Star (hip hop group)

Black Star is a rap group formed by MCs Mos Def and Talib Kweli. Affiliated with the group is DJ Hi-Tek, who formed producer/MC duo Reflection Eternal with Kweli for the album Train of Thought and produced a portion of Black Star ....
's 1998 self-titled album (lyrics by Mos Def
Mos Def

Dante Terrell Smith , is an American MC and actor known by the stage name Mos Def. Mos Def started his hip hop music career in a group called Urban Thermo Dynamics, after which he appeared on albums by Da Bush Babees and De La Soul....
 and Talib Kweli
Talib Kweli

Talib Kweli Greene , better known as Talib Kweli, is an United States MC from Brooklyn, New York. He is one of the best-known and critically, if not commercially, successful rappers in alternative hip hop....
), the song "RE-DEFinition" contains a lyric referring to the speech: "...'How to Make a Slave' by Willie Lynch is still applyin'...".

William Lynch

Some attribute the terms "lynching
Lynching

Lynching is an extrajudicial punishment meted out by a mob. It is an enumerated felony in all states of the United States, defined by some codes of law as "Any act of violence inflicted by a mob upon the body of another person which results in the death of the person," with a 'mob' being defined as "the assemblage of two or more persons, with...
" and "Lynch law" to William Lynch's name. However, the etymological Captain William Lynch was born in 1742, thirty years after the alleged delivery of this speech. A document published in the Southern Literary Messenger
Southern Literary Messenger

The Southern Literary Messenger was a periodical published in Richmond, Virginia, Virginia, from 1834 until June 1864. Each issue carried a subtitle of "Devoted to Every Department of Literature and the Fine Arts" or some variation and included poetry, fiction, non-fiction, reviews, and historical notes....
 in 1836 that proposed William Lynch as the originator of "lynch law" may have been a hoax perpetrated by Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe was an American poet, Short story writer, Editing and Literary criticism, and is considered part of the American Romanticism. Best known for his tales of Mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the Detective fiction genre....
. A better documented early use of the term "lynch law" comes from Charles Lynch, a Virginia justice of the peace and militia officer during the American Revolution.

See also

  • Divide and conquer
    Divide and conquer

    Divide and conquer may refer to:* Divide and rule, in politics, sociology and economics, a strategy to gain or maintain power* Divide and conquer algorithm, in computer science, an algorithm design paradigm based on recursion...


External links

  • (The first traceable online publisher)
  • (the making of a slave)