Tuesday Forgotten American Blogging: William Byrd II

Normally, Bastard Blogging is the first Tuesday of the month, but since the site was down, I'm publishing this today instead.

Is there a more disturbing character in American history than William Byrd II? I imagine that the answer is yes, but, as I hope you will see after reading this, Byrd was a son of a bitch.

Born into the Virginia elite in 1674, Byrd was schooled in England and spent about half his time there until 1726, when he returend to Virginia for good. In 1728, He was Virginia's chief commissioner for settling the boundary dispute with North Carolina. He founded Richmond in 1737. He died in 1744, one of the richest men in Virginia and the owner of over 179,000 acres.

A lot of people like Byrd because he is the antithesis of the Puritans. No funny hats or stodgy social mores for him! What fame he has today comes from his writings, particularly his diary, which is witty and ribald. And it also shows him to be a rephrensible bastard.

His diaries from London explicity discuss his habit of raping women. He wrote of visiting a friend, recalling that he "committed uncleanness with the maid because the mistress was not at home," then, "when the mistress came I rogered her." He remembered raping a "Dark Angel" who "struggled just enough to make her Admirer more eager." He also routinely raped his slaves, particularly as he got older and found it harder to have unforced sex. He claimed to save women from rape on the VA-NC border expedition, though it is hard to believe such stories coming from a man with this kind of attitude toward women. He certainly didn't discourage his men from engaging in bad behavior, such as the members of his party who entered one house and "broke the Rules of Hospitality by several gross Freedoms they offer'd to tkae with our Landlord's sister." In another incident, Byrd and his men engaged in the following behavior:

"In the Gaiety of Their Hearts, they invited a Tallow-faced Wench that had sprain'd her Wrist to drink with them, and when they had raise'd her in good Humour, they examined all her hidden Charms, and play'd a great many gay Pranks. When Firebrand who had hte most Curiosity, was ranging over her sweet Person, he pick't off several Scabs as big as Nipples, the Consequence of eating too much Pork. The poor Damsel was disabled from making any resistance by the Lameness of her Hand."

Firebrand, who was actually Richard Fitz-William, one of the leading Virginia commissioners, had a hell of an appetite according to Byrd. Once he and his servant teamed up to go after a pair of sisters. Firebrand "endeavour'd to mend his Entertainment by making Hot Love to honest Ruth, who wou'd by no means be charm'd either with his Perswasion, or his Person. While the Master was employ'd in making Love to one Sister, the man made his Passion known to the other, Only he was more boisterous & employ'd force, when he cou'd not succeed by fair means."

In other writings, he attacked the idea that women about to start their period should be allowed to have sex because it would create weak or stillborn children, claimed that female orgasm would undermine women's ability to conceive, and that women had such uncontrollable lust that they would gladly destroy men. He also speculated about the shape of vaginas and what that meant for sex and male and female power. Why did he hate women? Evidentally, he was routinely rejected by women, particularly as he got older, and his constant concern about the size of older men's penises has made some believe that he had problems in this department. He left his first wife, who he never got along with, in 1711, and she died of smallpox in 1716. After her death, he went after a young woman who rejected him outright and drove him to near insanity. He wrote about women throughout his life, including writing The Female Creed in 1725, that was among other things, a chance for him to obsess about women's asses, even though he claimed to find women's bodies repugnant and dirty. The real point of the book however was to argue that women are the very essence of human corruption.

On the other hand, Byrd did freely engage in Irish stereotypes, discussing land that was suited for those "easily contented, and like the Wild Irish, find more pleasure in Laziness than Luxury." So I guess he had some good in his heart.

The best source for much of this information is Paige Raibmon, "Naturalizing Power: Land and Sexual Violence along William Byrd's Dividing Line." See also Kenneth Lockridge, On the Sources of Patriarchal Rage and Kathleen M. Brown, Good Wives, Nasty Wenches, & Anxious Patriarchs: Gender, Race, and Power in Colonial Virginia.