William Byrd

I enjoyed William Byrd's story on How the Dividing Line between North Carolina and Virginia was established. As the editor said it seemed that he wrote with the idea that just he and his family would be reading it so the style was very straightforward but also included jokes and funny stories. I also liked the fact that it educated me on something I used to take for granted, namely how the states gained their borders.

His comments on the differences between North Carolina and Virginia were both humorous and enlightening. Virginia was described as beautiful and had an industrious people. But North Carolina was shown to be lazy and backwards. However an interesting bit of human nature was uncovered when he said that while surveying the land most people preferred that they would be in North Carolina instead of Virginia. The desire to not be told what to do by the government was evident and foreshadowed the Colonist desire to eventually be freed from English or any other rule. Byrd also made the comment that someday maybe even a great nation could rise out of North Carolina. I see this as a very interesting predictor of what has happened in N.C. since it has emerged as a premier state in the last twenty or so years.

Finally, Byrd’s commentary on the American Indians was interesting in that he saw little difference between them and the settlers in their attitudes and social life. He even criticized Britain’s lack of encouragement to interbreed with these Native Americans as a way to both convert them and gain land from the natives.