Dark Skin Slaves In Willie Lynch's Letter

The Willie Lynch Letter is a document that allegedly is a speech given by a white slave owner from the West Indies, on the bank of the James River in Virginia, 1712. It has been said that it was instructions to the current day slave owners on how to control their slaves indefinitely. This alleged letter came into print in the 1970s and gained wide spread attention in the 1990s. The brutality associated with this speech in controlling the African slave and keeping him and his

According to journalist Tionna Smalls, she exclaimed in her article entitled “Dark Skinned Vs. Light Skinned: The Black Man's Dilemma”, the slave owners would divide the slaves up by dark nigger and light nigger. The dark skinned slave would work on the plantation doing chores, picking cotton and nurturing the land. The light skinned slave would live in the plantation, cooking and taking care of the field masters children. Also the light skin female was admired by the master and even a sexual desire while the darker slave was treated like trash. Tionna goes on stating that after slavery the light skin female was put on a pedal stool in the family because being white was viewed as being right or pure, anything close to that was close to purity.

He wants his readers to imagine the pain and humiliation of the ill treatment that African Americans endure on a daily basis. King writes of vicious mobs lynching people’s mothers and fathers, policemen killing people’s brothers and sisters, a man and his wife not receiving the proper respect they deserve because of their skin color, and the notion that African Americans feel insignificant within their communities; this is why these peaceful demonstrators of whom the clergymen attack “find it difficult to wait” (King, 20). However, King believes that soon, injustice will be exposed, like “a boil that can never be cured so long as it is covered up” (King, 30). This vivid description helps arouse an emotional response, driving shame into the hearts of his white readers.

We have yet to break out of this curse that Willie Lynch and the white slave owners have put upon us. The effects of Willie Lynch are apparent in the actions of blacks today including myself. The way I act and some of the small things I say come from the work of one man and the knowledge that he gave the white slave owners to train African slaves to act and think according to their will. Whether we want to believe if Willie Lynch was a real person or not it is apparent that the words lynch spoke still mentally enslaved the black people of

Phillips' book is an attempt to provide an overview of the practice and institutions of slavery in the Americas from its beginnings to the 19th century. Writing in 1918, Phillips hoped to provide an account of slavery based upon historical evidence and modern methods of research, rather than ideological motivations. He drew his evidence from the plantation records and letters of slave owners; contemporary travel accounts; court records and legal documents; newspaper articles; and in some instances, the recordings of slaves themselves, rather than what he viewed as more biased sources such as abolitionist writings. While this approach was not systematic and led him to base many

First, ask yourself how would you feel after hearing the news that one of your family members had been lynched? Throughout the chapters 1-8, we can experience and observe the disheartening history of violence and lies. It is additionally an irritating depiction of a partitioned country on the very edge of the social equality development and an eerie contemplation on race, history, and the battle for truth. Throughout history, the conditions of the lynching, how it affected the legislators of the day, quickened the social equality development and keeps on shadowing the Georgia people group where these homicides occurred. During the 1900s until 19600s various African-Americans experienced various harsh conditions of violence, never being granted the right to vote and being segregated from whites based on their race and skin-color from their white masters. In general racism between whites and blacks can be seen throughout the globe during the era of slavery

Wells,“Lynch Law in America,”) Over a hundred of African Americans were lynched every year. The unwritten law was practiced for thirty years, inhumanly butchering thousands of men, women, children by either drowning, hanging, shooting, and burning them alive. By this point, the national law was irrelevant and the unwritten law was superior among the southern states. With every killing, white Americans would invent an excuse accordingly and to make matters worse, they realized it was sufficient to put anyone to death if the crime was against a woman, no matter if it were true or not, since it was under the unwritten law, which did not allow any sort of trial. This accusation was done in “the interest of those who did the lynching to blacken the good name of the helpless and defenseless victims of their hate. For this reason they publish at every possible opportunity this excuse for lynching, hoping thereby not only to palliate their own crime but at the same time to prove the negro a moral monster and unworthy of the respect and sympathy

. . but specifics [to him] didn’t matter because the victims were now symbols of injustice: a NAACP cause” (78). Especially given the long-past, over-60-years-old nature of the lynching, Wexler’s goal, and therefore also her writing, must more profound, and compelling, than this, and therefore she, unlike White, is interested in the specifics: “Roger and Dorothy Malcolm, and George and Mae Murray [the lynching victims] . . . I have tried to bring them to life” (266). Wexler succeeds in that, rather than merely mentioning these victims in the context of the lynching, she includes detailed biographies of each, as well as of their relations, and describes their actions long before and immediately leading up to the lynching, in an attempt to give the reader a better understanding of and greater empathy for them.

When reading the Willie Lynch letter, one will gain knowledge in knowing that the strategies that were used during slavery are still currently being used today. An example of this would be the “light skin vs. dark skin” method. During slavery, this method was introduced to cause conflict between colored people of different shade complexities. Currently, the “light skin vs. dark skin” method is being used to compare which skin tone is better, meaning the qualities and characteristics of that individual or group of people. This method was provided to the colored slaves because the white slave owners attempted to limit people of color from equality and unity to come together as one. In the speech given by Fredrick Douglas, he says “ This Fourth of July is yours, not mine”. Fredricks meaning behind this was that although America considered everyone to be free, colored people still had to face tough situations in society due to the social norm that had already been set up for them; not allowing them to have the same privileges and opportunities as whites. Colored people were treated unequally in society leading up to great racism. What Fredrick Douglas was trying to say was that colored people were everything but free, and the white leading citizens were aware of that but said

The discriminating social stratification in 1950’s developed a set of servile behavior on the blacks. They were thought to be inferior to whites, and were treated accordingly. Moreover, different parts of the country had various ranges of sensitivities while dealing with the blacks. For example, in Mississippi things were particularly tense after the Parker lynch case. No black man would dare look into any white man’s eyes in fear of the repercussions. On the bus, a man warned Griffin to watch himself closely until he caught onto Mississippi’s ways. In an extreme case like this, it was vital to learn about their roles and behave accordingly.

The argument that the author is trying to prove is that there has been numerous of lynching events in America but it has progressed into different levels over the years to prevent African- Americans from getting a voice in America’s society. Such as, using lynching as punishment for people’s actions that were not accepted to the public community, a source of intimidation and protection of white women. Majority of white men and women tried every way to keep African- Americans at the bottom of society. Like, when blacks were free from slavery however were still not able to participate in politics, go to the best schools and were only able to work for the low paying jobs. Blacks

In the article, “The Mulatto Advantage”, the author discusses the belief that light-skinned African-American slaves were treated better than dark-skinned Afri-can-American slaves in the antebellum Lower South. The proof that the author has that lighter-skinned african-americans were treated better is that they had a height ad-vantage over the dark-skinned, which leads to the conclusion that they were feed a lot better than the dark-skinned.

Back then, not all blacks had the same privileges and racism wasn’t just about black and white people. This is an example of colourism. Colourism can be “defined as a conscious or unconscious state of prejudice that may be experienced by both blacks and whites so that they label as less attractive and intelligent individuals of a darker complexion, particularly, when it comes to black women” (“Demystifying”). Among the black community, there is racism between it as well. Back then, white slave owners “allowed those of a lighter complexion certain privileges and denied those of a darker complexion those privileges and created in the minds of blacks that “light” is better. In addition, the selling of lighter-skinned women into prostitution or to salve masters to become their mistresses helped to concretize the idea that light skin is better” (“Demystifying”). But racism is not just about blacks and whites. It can be between any races. With the internet and the power of social networking these days, it is even easier to repudiate and excoriate people. People can criticize you secretly and not include you in certain events without your knowing. You can express racism even behind a computer screen on a website plus make it private so it can’t be seen by the public.

The great majority of people lynched between 1882 and 1930 were black. During that period there were almost 4800 recorded lynchings in the United States. There were many more, no doubt, but we know about 4800. 3400 victims of this mob justice were black. The period from 1889 to 1893 accounted for the worst years. 579 blacks were lynched as opposed to 260 whites. That is a ration of 2.2 blacks lynched for every white. This is a significant difference already, but only part of the story. By the end of the century the racial nature of lynching had revealed itself, completely and unmistakably. Between 1899 and 1903, 543 people were lynched in the United States -- men and women. Of that number only 27 were white. That is a ratio of 22 blacks lynched for every white.

Even though freedom has been our nation’s identity for its entire existence, our nation has suffered “dark ages” when the freedoms of African Americans were repressed. During the period of slavery, African Americans were forced to labor under often cruel and gruesome conditions, for their white masters. Solomon Northup, a free man forcefully made a slave, describes his thoughts on slavery in his 12 Years a Slave: