Willie Lynch Letter Analysis
Black Humanities
Willie Lynch
As I researched whether or not the Willie Lynch letter is valid, I have concluded that it is invalid for a few reasons and I found supporting documentation to prove my view. Unfortunately, I don’t think the letter is valid but the ideas and content within the letter are valid and the legacy of slaves, slave trade, and slave mistreatment are real. According to freemaninstitute.com, no evidence of there being such a person named Willie Lynch has ever been discovered. Some other obvious questions which lead me to believe the letter is invalid are, “why a person would be invited from the West Indies to Virginia just to deliver an 8-paragraph speech? Back then, such a trip would have been too strenuous and expensive …show more content…
Two paragraphs later he says that he will “give an outline of action,” for slave-holders; the word “out-line” had appeared only 50 years earlier and was an artistic term meaning a sketch – it didn’t convey it’s present meaning until 1759.” After reading these points by experts, I researched when these words derived and began being used within the English language and found it was accurate. “Second, the author was not at all successful at steering clear of very specific anachronisms. We 'll name only the most glaring word-choice errors: fool-proof, used in the speech, actually dates from only 1902. The noun program is not used in the sense found in this speech until the 1830s. Self-refueling is an utter anachronism, as the term refueling did not arise until the early 20th century. Use of installed when referring to something other than a person did not first occur until the mid-19th century. Moreover, attitude did not refer to anything other than a physical position until the mid-19th century.” These are just a few examples of words being used in this 1712 letter which weren’t around at the time. Finally, as I mentioned earlier, there is no evidence that a William Lynch from a "modest plantation" in the West Indies ever existed. Although, there is some evidence of a Captain William Lynch of Pittsylvania, Virginia, whom has been identified as the most probable source of the verb lynch, and who was born fifty years after the date given in the Willie Lynch
Willie Lynch
As I researched whether or not the Willie Lynch letter is valid, I have concluded that it is invalid for a few reasons and I found supporting documentation to prove my view. Unfortunately, I don’t think the letter is valid but the ideas and content within the letter are valid and the legacy of slaves, slave trade, and slave mistreatment are real. According to freemaninstitute.com, no evidence of there being such a person named Willie Lynch has ever been discovered. Some other obvious questions which lead me to believe the letter is invalid are, “why a person would be invited from the West Indies to Virginia just to deliver an 8-paragraph speech? Back then, such a trip would have been too strenuous and expensive …show more content…
Two paragraphs later he says that he will “give an outline of action,” for slave-holders; the word “out-line” had appeared only 50 years earlier and was an artistic term meaning a sketch – it didn’t convey it’s present meaning until 1759.” After reading these points by experts, I researched when these words derived and began being used within the English language and found it was accurate. “Second, the author was not at all successful at steering clear of very specific anachronisms. We 'll name only the most glaring word-choice errors: fool-proof, used in the speech, actually dates from only 1902. The noun program is not used in the sense found in this speech until the 1830s. Self-refueling is an utter anachronism, as the term refueling did not arise until the early 20th century. Use of installed when referring to something other than a person did not first occur until the mid-19th century. Moreover, attitude did not refer to anything other than a physical position until the mid-19th century.” These are just a few examples of words being used in this 1712 letter which weren’t around at the time. Finally, as I mentioned earlier, there is no evidence that a William Lynch from a "modest plantation" in the West Indies ever existed. Although, there is some evidence of a Captain William Lynch of Pittsylvania, Virginia, whom has been identified as the most probable source of the verb lynch, and who was born fifty years after the date given in the Willie Lynch