WIlliam Byrd

In class we read two excerpts about William Byrd. One being written about his writings by someone else and then the other being written by Byrd himself. The first was an article about how Byrd was this sexual man who woke up, prayed, ate, had sex, and went to sleep. I did not think of him to be a sex craved narcissist, however, I realize that I only read a small selection of Byrd's "The Secret of the Dividing Line". So it is easy to see how that can be misjudged.

I shared with the class on last Thursday what I found interesting about Byrd’s diary entries. I enjoyed reading about how Byrd and his relationships with women are similar to modern relationships.

I noticed that when Byrd and his wife were on good terms she would cook him a good meal for dinner, but when they were not getting along she would cook less appetizing dinners. In a January diary entry Byrd states that he could not look at Mrs. Harrison because he knew she would be able to cry on demand "like most women do". This was so interesting to me because men have always said that women can manipulate anything since they have the ability to cry on demand. It is wild to think that in the early 1700s men and women had the same opinion of one another.

A topic that was brought up in class by someone else was that Byrd liked control and power. I thought about it and this statement is true to my topic too. Though Byrd liked power of the state lines and helped straighten situations in other people's households he also I forced his power over his wife. He liked for his wife to go places with him, but she would only want to go if she felt like it. In another entry she tells Byrd that she will only go out of the house will him if she can "pull her brows". Byrd did refuse for his wife to do this and that is probably because she was trying to modernize herself while Byrd preferred her to be desirable to him and not others. Even in modern day the average man enjoys when his partner is dressed to impress but of too much attention is given then they eventually want to lessen that public attraction.

It is interesting to think about how the public has classified Byrd to be a gentleman farmer and a lady’s man as well. Being known as a gentlemen’s farmer gives the tone that he worked hard, but not too hard, and wanted everyone to know it. In that time it was probably very common for ‘higher society’ men to give and get attention from other women even though they are married. I have no doubt that this story could possibly be Byrd’s secrets coming out to play, however, I like to think that perhaps Byrd’s secrets were not secrets at all but just Byrd holding up his reputation for being a gentleman farmer.