William Byrd's Histories of the Dividing Line Betwixt Virginia: and North Carolina

by William Byrd

A masterpiece of American prose and history, here is an early 18th-century account of surveying expedition. Official, printed account by Byrd on facing pages with private manuscript of secret-history, telling scandals, bawdy exploits of commissioners among Indians, settlers. Map, reproduction of manuscript pages. Introduction by Percy Adams.

Genres: History, American History

340 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1967

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

William Byrd II was a British planter and author from Charles City County in colonial Virginia. He is considered the founder of Richmond, Virginia. (Source: Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Freddie the Know-it-all · Rating 1 out of 5]

World's First Cry-baby For Poor Ol' Underdogs

This guy. Risked death by drowning in his own tears or being burned as a saint.

Yeah, yeah, I know it's about surveying out in the woods, but I have a low tolerance for word-pictures, that is Nature Boy descriptions of trees, valleys, hills, and especially the millions of kinds of weeds and vegetables you find in the forest. If you can read that crap, then you can do something that I cannot.

And Hippie Cures! You Hippies should hang your heads in shame. Three hundred years ago this guy had more root/flower/tea cures than a Santa Fe Smoke Shop and Potter's Outfitter in the Whole Foods Shopping Center. No one need ever die of ... of anything if you listen to him. Rattlesnake bite? A trifle, a mere bagatelle.

As for what he knows about Indians, well, I guess he really wins all the prizes. Nobody I've ever known that shoots his mouth off about the Noble Red Man has ever even seen one. This guy saw some and still insisted on lying to himself. He was actually shocked when his workmen wouldn't pork the squaws offered to them -- even though they'd been "without" for a record-breaking time. Let me put it this way: go out to sea on a whaler for 6 months, stop in the world's filthiest, most syphilis-ridden, equatorial shit-hole, and stick it in. But these same guys, after one look at Miss Kick-a-hole-in-the-sky (Elizabeth Warren's great-great-great-grandma), said "no thanks". And I've been there, I know exactly why. But Byrd didn't. Something seriously wrong with this guy. His boys knew better, which shows the natural superiority of the Britisher over the Frenchman. (Don't you Britishers start shouting your soccer cheers, that ain't saying much.)

He actually thought it was a GOOD idea to give Indians guns. Not so they could hunt better -- the usual cry-baby excuse for giving a shark an extra set of teeth -- but because then they'd depend on us for their guns. Holy Mother of God. This is like saying we shoulda given the Japs A-bombs, because then they'd depend on us for more A-bombs.

I sure hope Biden doesn't cure Cancer, we've already got Cancer right where we want him, totally dependent on us.

I'm an old Indian Fighter from way back. There's nothing I don't know about Indians. Let me tell you something: there's nothing anyone from east of the Mississippi DOES know about Indians. Nothing. Not even these Court-of-Versailles East-Coast Indians. No one who could read and write anyway. This guy is even dumber than Fenimore Cooper. I'm not 100% Cooper ever met a real live Indian, and having a clearly feminine nature, he loved 'em. But this guy saw some in real life -- fancy-ass ones with wigwams and not teepees -- but he still was incapable of learning.

But, what the hell, lying to yourself is normal. Foodies do it non-stop, 24/7. (Well, they lie to each other too, but they BELIEVE their lies.) But I still recommend you NOT read this book. Don't make yourself even stupider than you already are. You already got Sci-Fi doing that job for you.

[Ted Manahan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good writing and clever wit transform what could be a boring travelogue into a fun read.

[Dylan C · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fun read about Byrd’s adventure surveying the border. The Dismal swamp, various run ins with farmers, and the snowy mountains near the end, end up creating a very interesting story to read. This book was also a neat way to see how the colonists viewed and treated other races, with disparaging remarks about jews early in the book, to the way the surveyors treated the Saponi natives and Bearskin himself.

[twrctdrv · Rating 2 out of 5]

Given the title, I didn't know what to expect. The superb double punch of the introductions though, the first about how stately an aristocrat he is, a true pleasure-haver, the second about how handwriting analysis shows he didn't write either history but maybe his daughter is, and how a lot of the info is wrong and that there's a chance he might have made the whole thing up, they're probably the best introductions I've ever read

[Kristina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Humorous! I am not at all into geography, history, or American literature, but this was quite the entertaining read. For a very interesting, easy to read, and fun look at the early development of the United States, I highly suggest it.

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good book to complement John Lawson account. There were buffalo in the Carolinas! Interesting to learn about how close the surveyors of Virginia and Carolinas came to defining the same line.