The Willie Lynch document is normally referred to as a speech, not a letter. Do a Google search using willie lynch speech william piersen as your keywords and you'll find several sites debunking the "speech." The critique is the work of the late William Piersen, a historian at Fisk University.

Virginians with no history background will be able to spot at least one error in the document that has Willie coming up from the West Indies to give a talk at a plantation on the banks of the James River; he supposedly is travelling "south" along the James as nears his destination.

Just showing the document to be a fake and then moving on is to miss an opportunity to help students understand
the difference between history and heritage. The significant question is not whether the speech illuminates the 18th-century history of slavery in the Americas: of course, it does not. The more significant task is determining why it remains popular for its insights into present-day realities in African American communities.

Doug Deal
History/SUNY Oswego
 

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