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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
James, whose bible we cherish, I saw enough to know that your
program is not unique. While Rome used cords of wood as crosses for
standing human bodies along the old highways in great numbers, you
are here using the tree and the 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 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.
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 least 300 years. My method is simple, any member 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 simple
little test of differences and think about them. On the top of my
list is "Age", but it is there because it only starts with an "A";
the second is "Color" or shade; there is intelligence, size, sex,
size of plantations, attitude of owners, whether the slaves live in
the valley, on a hill, East, West, North, South, have fine or coarse
hair, or is 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 forget, you must pitch the
old Black vs. the young Black male, and the young Black male against
the old Black male. You must use the dark skinned slaves vs the
light skinned slaves, and the light skinned slaves vs. the dark
skinned slaves. You must use the female vs. the male, and the male
vs. the female. You must also have your servants and overseers
distrust 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 your
keys to control, use them. Have your wives and children use them.
Never miss 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.
William Lynch
The Death of the Willie Lynch letter - one Professor Manu
Ampim's analysis of the letter |
