Hooper, Bill, and Randi

 His father always wanted him to become an Englishman  He was sent to live in England when he was young in order to go to Felsted  His father thought that this would help him gain a soft side for England  Most of his classmates teased him due to his colonial heritage

 Married Lucy Parke  She died in 1717 from small pox  Byrd remarried to Maria Taylor in 1725  He had six children named Evelyn, Wilhelmina, Anne, Maria, Jane, and William Byrd III

 Byrd never knew whether to consider himself a colonial or Englishman  Byrd came to appreciate Virginia and was well respected in his community  He was appointed to be a county commissioner and help run the line along the border of Virginia and North Carolina

 He was one of the first Americans to express his of the vast American wilderness.  Byrd’s works were never really meant to be published when he wrote  He saw the woods in a different perspective than everybody else  Concerning the pioneers and their need to go west he says, "The pioneers, in short, lived too close to wilderness for appreciation."

 In his writing, he compares many instances in his reality to stories from biblical times  In his book, History of the Dividing Line, he had notes such as the local game and detailed drawings of the land  He appreciated nature and seemed to be one with himself while out there

 Byrd writes during a time when colonial literature was largely composed of Puritan writers  Byrd’s style of writing even in his most minor pieces is sophisticated at worst(mostly due to his use of irony)

 He views each people as a whole  The North Carolinians are placed below the Virginians for their religious indifference and the idleness of their men, yet admired for their fertility and freedom.  Each group is viewed in a balanced, yet highly judgmental way

 Sometime between 1730 and 1735, Byrd tried to publish his original Secret History of the Dividing Line, "a gossipy, satirical narrative of the expedition,“  In 1744, he published History of the Dividing Line  In his writing, Byrd sometimes portrays himself as the man that he always wished he was (trying to piece together the pieces of his odd life)

 In his books, you will see his increasing appreciation for nature in America  His writing also contains a Romantic sense to it (Romantic movement was in 19 th century)

 During the Protestant Reformation, keeping a diary had become a source of “finding yourself”  Byrd kept a diary in which he would write about his days, what he had to eat, what he did, who he talked to and so forth  Byrd had always wanted to please his father and rise to his expectations (in his writing he could create this for himself)

 He was the author of the Westover Manuscripts, published in 1841 under three titles, The History of the Dividing Line, A Journey to the Land of Eden, and A Progress to the Mines, and most famously, The Secret Diaries of William Byrd of Westover

 m/sam1.html m/sam1.html  Dr. Thomas T. Long, William Byrd II of Westover