As I created this page I thought "propaganda" but there is something deep down inside me that says, "truth" and that it still lives today.
The following has been credited to William Lynch, a White slave owner, who reportedly made the speech on the banks of the James River in 1712.
It was quoted at length by Minister Louis Farrakhan at the Million Man March where it stunned many in the audience because of the cold-blooded way it described how the minds of African-Americans could be enslaved.
According to an essay appearing in "Brother Man- The Odyssey of Black Men in America- An Anthology" Lynch was a British slave owner in the West Indies who came to the United States to tell American slave owners how to keep their slaves under control.
The term "lynching" is derived from Lynch's name.
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 of control of slaves. Ancient Rome would envy us if my program were 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 woods as crosses for standing human bodies along its 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 a 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 hundred years.
My method is simple. Any member of your family or your 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 list of differences, and think about them.
On top of my list is "Age", but it is there only because it starts with an "A": the second is "Color" or shade, there is intelligence, size, sex, size of plantations, status on plantation, attitude of owners, whether the slave live in the valley, on hill, East, West, North, South, have fine hair, 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.
Don't forget:
If used intensely for one year, the slaves themselves will remain perpetually distrustful.
Thank you, gentlemen.
Source: The AFRO-American Newspaper
Note: I clicked for the source, the link did not work. I haven't bothered since.(Art)