The William Lynch speech, also referred to “How to Make a Slave,” has long been debated and discussed in Black America. It is believed to have been delivered by a man named William or Willie to slave owners in Virginia in 1712 on the topic of how to control slaves in the colony. Supposedly a “secret” speech, it instructed slaveowners to pit Black slaves against each other as a means of control.

But did the speech actually take place? 

There was a document of the speech circulated hundreds of years later in 1970 that picked up steam on the internet in the 1990s. The document was often touted as an authentic account of slavery during the 18th century.

But in 2012, a South Carolina State University professor revealed that the document was a hoax, and the story of Willie Lynch, a white slave owner giving a speech on how to control slaves, was no more than a myth.

“I think it would be best described as an urban myth that persists. It just won’t go away,” Dr. William Hine told The Times and Democrat. “Many people find it very appealing, but it’s a complete fabrication done in the early 1990s. It has no more historical credibility than George Washington chopping down the cherry tree or Christopher Columbus sailing across a flat planet.”

Those myths kind of live on, Hines said.

“But Washington never chopped down a cherry tree and Columbus was fully aware that he was sailing around a globe and not a flat surface. The Willie Lynch myth fits into that kind of non-history, but it is appealing. People find it fascinating and keep passing it on,” Hine said.

The speech was full of inaccuracies about slavery in the 18th century, according to Hine.

“It’s this slave master in 1712 in Virginia telling white colonial America how to treat Black people, but the language is very clear and very understandable. It’s 21st-century language. That’s not something that was actually spoken or written in 1712,” Hine pointed out.

“It’s contrived and it’s appealing to people. It keeps being resurrected by people, but I don’t know any self-respecting historian who gives it any credibility at all,” he said.

Myth or not, the speech story resonated with many in Black America. So much so that there is a condition known as Willie Lynch syndrome used to which explain why Black America adopted the mythical speech as a way to explain Black disunity and the psychological trauma of slavery. 

“While some have questioned and even dismissed this speech from the outset, it is fair to say that most African Americans who are aware of the speech have not questioned its authenticity, and assume it to be a legitimate and very crucial historical document which explains what has happened to African Americans,” wrote Professor Manu Ampim, a historian and then- primary researcher specializing in African and African American history and culture at Merritt College, in a 2014 paper.

Ampim went on to explain why the speech was a myth, noting that “William Lynch” was born three decades after the alleged speech. 

So how did the “speech” come about? According to Ampim, the first online reference to the Willie Lynch speech was in a late 1993 online listing of sources, posted by Anne Taylor, who was then the reference librarian at the University of Missouri at St. Louis. Taylor was interested in the origin of the Lynch speech and indicated she had received it from an anonymous source.

Eventually, Taylor revealed the source and on Oct. 31, 1995, she wrote in an email to the late Dr. William Piersen (Professor of History at Fisk University): “Enough butt-covering, now it’s time to talk about where I got it. The publisher who gave me this (speech) wanted to remain anonymous…because he couldn’t trace it, either, and until now I’ve honored his wishes. It was printed in a local, widely-distributed, free publication called The St. Louis Black Pages, 9th anniversary edition, 1994, page 8.”

The Lynch speech soon began to be distributed in the Black community and was popularized at the Nation of Islam (NOI) Million Man March, held in Washington, D.C. on Oct. 16, 1995, where it was referred to by NOI leader Minister Louis Farrakhan. 

Farrakhan said, “We, as a people who have been fractured, divided and destroyed because of our division, now must move toward a perfect union. Let’s look at a speech, delivered by a white slaveholder on the banks of the James River in 1712… Listen to what he said. He said, ‘In my bag, I have a foolproof method of controlling Black slaves. I guarantee every one of you, if installed correctly, it will control the slaves for at least 300 years’…So spoke Willie Lynch 283 years ago.” 

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With the 1995 Million Man March broadcast live on C-Span TV, millions of people heard about the Willie Lynch speech for the first time. 

Every year during Black History Month discussions, the Willie Lynch speech pops up again. Its legend grew until it was knocked down as a hoax.