Reverse History

Ceymone King
Jul 24, 2017 · 3 min read

In 1712, a white slave owner by the name of Willie Lynch delivered a speech on the banks of the James River. He came to America for the purpose of teaching our white American slave owners a new method on the most efficient way to control their slaves. While this method was beneficial to them, it was a traumatic and agonizing experience for our African ancestors. Willie Lynch technique involved brutal beatings and merciless psychological stripping of the mind. “Body over mind,” was his motto. Keep the working man, but destroy their mind so that his only use is labor.

He started his method by listing a number of differences among the slaves and making those differences bigger using fear, distrust and envy for control purposes. For example: age, color, intelligence, sex, size, status on plantation, where they live, hair and height. He took these differences and exaggerated on which one was “better” causing animosity towards one another and breaking the unity. They took family’s (pregnant mom, dad, and child) and broke the man’s mental using the same principle’s of breaking a horse plus an addition of some sustaining factors.

Willie Lynch gave various methods of how to break the slave mentally. One of the major methods used for breaking the female was to test her to see if she’ll submit to the ‘masters’ desires and if she resists, bull whip her until it’s almost deadly. She will then raise her child to submit to labor in fear of them having to go through the brutal consequences. One way they lessen the male mentally is by taking the strongest and most fearless slave, strip him of his clothes in front of all the other males, female, and child, then tie each leg to two different horses, set him on fire, and torture the horses until they pull him apart. This creates fear in all the men and a sense of independence in the women for they feel they have to protect themselves and their family because the male is no longer reliable and portrayed as weak.

“A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin, and culture is like a tree without roots” (Marcus Garvey). In other words, if we don’t know our history as a people, then we cannot grow or prosper as a whole. A lot of these methods are still in existence today, which separates us as a people. But because we are not aware of why certain things the way they are, then we can not change for the better. In today’s society, you still see the envy and overemphasis of which black is ‘better’ or ‘more beautiful’ (i.e., light-skinned vs dark-skinned, course hair vs fine hair, west side vs east side). All black is beautiful and no physical appearance or the neighborhood you live in should effect how we treat one another. When it all comes down to it, the American society sees us all the same and applauds our black on black crime and hatred. We must join together as one, regain our unity, and notice that our differences are all in the same!

Another way you still see Lynch’s methods in effect is with your ‘typical’ and stereotyped black family. They use the government system to weaken our men mentally and physically. Once the woman is left with just her child and herself, it causes her to be establish a strong will of independence. She raises her girls based off the prior knowledge she knew growing up and raises the boys telling them about the consequences they can face in today’s world. The system is set up, so that it is comfortable for this cycle to repeat throughout generations. One thing missing in this cycle is knowledge and wisdom of our past. We focus so much on “just getting by” and the physical things in life, without stopping to think why is this so common in my community?

In order for us to grow, we must first recognize our roots! Once we recognize our roots, we can change patterns and flourish into the strongest tree. Strong enough to stand through any storm or man made struggle. Unity and knowledge is where our future starts. Let’s use what they instilled in our minds to make us weak and create diverse strength. Let’s reverse history.

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