While the speech describes some of the wickedness Babylon deals with, it is not a real speech made by anybody in the 1700s. Here is a link and quote explaining why. Other people have said the same thing about it.
I and I need to be more critical of information. The real truth of the wickedness of Babylon is evident and can be found, but things like this speech are just distractions from the truth.
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www.dailykos.com/story/2012/06/22/1102264/-More-Ethnic-Myths-Confronting-the-Historical-Fiction-that-is-the-Willie-Lynch-Letter
This speech was said to have been delivered by Willie Lynch on the bank of the James River in the colony of Virginia in 1712. Lynch was a British slave owner in the West Indies. He was invited to the colony of Virginia in 1712 to teach his methods to slave owners there.
[beginning of the Willie Lynch Letter]
Greetings,
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 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 highways in great numbers, you are here using the tree and the rope on occasions. I caught the whiff of a dead slave hanging from a tree, a couple miles back.
You are not only losing 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.
"Ethnic" myths cut both ways across the color line.
Behind Dr. King, Brother Malcolm X, and Barack Obama, Willie Lynch is probably one of the most discussed and recognizable figures among the African American public. While the first two are lions of the Black Freedom Struggle, and Obama is President of the United States, good ol' Mr. Lynch was a white slave owner who insidiously mapped out a master plan that continues to divide, conquer, and oppress black America into the 21st century.
His reach is long. In fact, I cannot go one year without a black student bringing up Willie Lynch. I rarely go one month without hearing his name mentioned at the barbershop or on the bus by someone earnestly trying to make sense of the day-to-day challenges facing black Americans.
However, there is a problem here: Willie Lynch and his infamous speech are fictions, smart examples of political propaganda that came into being during the latter part of the 20th century.
As I alluded to regarding the myth of "No Irish Need Apply," for those black folks seeking an explanation for their own particular historical and political predicament does it matter if the Willie Lynch Letter is a fraud?
I used to believe that the Willie Lynch Letter was true. While I was going through my "conscious black man" phase in college, an upperclassmen friend sat down and dropped the secret wisdom contained in the Willie Lynch Letter on all of the younger brothers who were hanging out in his campus apartment playing Spades. It was really illuminating. All of the structural, political, economic, and social ills facing black people in America could be traced to this one devious white man who outlined a plan centuries ago to make black people disorganized, servile, and weak. Profound. This was the racial version of Dianetics and L. Ron Hubbard's Scientology cult.
Thankfully, I had some great professors who did not accept nonsense thinking and easy solutions. One of these saints was an older Afro-Caribbean scholar who was known for being a tyrant--he threw whole groups of students out of class for wasting his precious time; would humiliate fools with ease; and if you came to him seeking knowledge he would do his best to train you up like Pa Mei did The Bride in Kill Bill.
I shared the Willie Lynch Letter with him during our independent study course Slavery in the New World. He looked at the document curiously and then suddenly became disturbed. I asked him what he thought. His reaction was akin to that of a robot being confronted with bad data. He stood up and walked out. We would get to talk next week when he had an answer.
Seven days later my professor calmly and seriously told me that this document is utter garbage. I asked "how?" and "why?" He explained that part of the joy of being a historian and a social scientist is that you can actually use your brain to answer questions.
He proceeded to take out a pile of documents and a map. He told me to read the letter aloud. I did. Thus the obvious problem, the language is not written in 18th century English. My teacher then produced a map. He had underlined the passage in the Willie Lynch Letter that gave a hint as to geography and the location of the author's plantation. Again, the narrative did not match the facts. As an example of archival research, he produced records of the plantation owners in that area, a census, and other materials in order to determine if Willie Lynch actually existed as a person in the West Indies. None could be produced. Finally, how could Willie Lynch who supposedly gave this speech in 1712, know about Frederick Douglas, a figure in the 19th century? Was Willie Lynch a time traveler?
In all, my mentor explained that people want simple answers. As such, they seek out conspiracy theories in order to make sense of their lives. It is easier to believe in white trickster slave owners who have genius intellects than to accept a basic principle: people are rotten, they are barbaric, and will exploit each other whenever they get a chance.
Chattel slavery was just a global example of white European barbarism. Willie Lynch was not necessary. White slave owners did not need him to refine the industrial scale production of the plantation because they had agricultural journals and conferences where all aspects of the chattel system could be discussed.
Nevertheless, the Willie Lynch Letter remains both powerful and influential because it resonates with the target audience. What do we do with such true lies? Does the seductive power of the Willie Lynch Letter rest in its ability to describe the social challenges facing many in Black America, and to provide some clarity and meaning for those who feel overwhelmed and lost?
If so, should our empirical standards interfere with the explanatory power and psychic validation offered by a cultural myth?
Just as many white folks would feel a personal affront at any critical engagement with the hard times white ethnic myth, there are many African Americans who would become personally upset and hurt if the Willie Lynch Letter was exposed for the "true lie" it is.
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