Willy Lynch Letter

Babylon Observer: The Willy Lynch Letter (From the Archives)

Gentlemen:

I greet you here on the banks of the James River in the year of our Lord, 1712. First of all, thank you, gentlemen of the colony of Virginia, for bringing me here. I'm 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 method 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 our problem is not unique. While Rome used cords or 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 breathed the stench of a dead slave hanging from a tree a few miles back.You lose valuable stock by hangings, you 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, Gentleman, .. . You know what your problems are, I do not need to elaborate. I'm not here to enumerate your problems, I am here to present a method to solve them.

In my bag, I have a foolproof method for controlling your slaves. I guarantee that all of you, if installed, will control the slaves for at least three hundred years.My method is simple, any member of your family or OverSeer can use it.

I 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 Caribbean and it will work throughout the SOUTH. Take this simple little list of differences and think about them.On the top of my list is "AGE" but it is only because it starts with an "A", the second is "color" or shade, there is INTELLIGENCE, size, sex, height plantation, attitude of the owner, whether the slaves live in the valley on a hill, east or west, north, south, have fine or coarse hair, or is tall or short. Now that you have a list of differences, I'll give you a glimpse of the action, but before that, I assure you that distrust is stronger than trust and envy is stronger than adulation, respect or admiration.

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