William Lynch Speech

The William (or Willie) Lynch Speech (or Letter) is a text of modern origin which drew widespread attention when it circulated throughout the Internet during the 1990s. It purports to be an address given by William Lynch to an audience on the bank of the James River in Virginia in 1712 regarding control of slaves within the colony.^[1][2][3] 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.^[1][2][3] No provenance for the speech has ever been supplied, and 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, historians such as William Jelani Cobb of Spelman College consider the Willie Lynch speech to be an internet hoax.^[4] 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] In the 2007 movie The Great Debaters, Denzel Washington's character Melvin Todd refers to the Willie Lynch speech as being the definition of the black slave.

See also

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

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Lynch, William; as attributed by The Freeman Institute. Willie Lynch Speech. The Freeman Institute. Retrieved on March 9, 2007.
2. ^ ^{a b} Lynch, William; as attributed by June Thornton-Marsh (2003-01-03). William Lynch. The Colby Institute. Retrieved on March 9, 2007.
3. ^ ^{a b} Lynch, William; as attributed by FinalCall.com News (2005-08-22). Willie Lynch letter: The Making of a Slave. FinalCall.com News. FCN Publishing. Retrieved on March 9, 2007.
4. ^ Cobb, W. Jelani (2003). Willie Lynch is Dead (1712?-2003). Creative Ink: Jelani Cobb. Retrieved on March 9, 2007.
5. ^ Farrakhan, Louis. An appeal .... The Official Site for the Millions More Movement. Accessed on October 12, 2005

External links

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