William Byrd II - Diaries

Diaries

The first diary runs from 1709 to 1712 and was first published in the 1940s. It was originally written in a shorthand code and deals mostly with the day-to-day aspects of Byrd’s life, many of the entries containing the same formulaic phrases. A typical entry read like this:

6. I rose at 6 o’clock and said my prayers and ate milk for breakfast. Then I proceeded to Williamsburg, where I found all well. I went to the capitol where I sent for the wench to clean my room and when I came I kissed her and felt her, for which God forgive me. . . . About 10 o’clock I went to my lodgings. I had good health but wicked thoughts, God forgive me.

A man of great learning who usually read some Greek or Latin text every morning, and a man of great passion who was forever making vows of repentance and then promptly breaking them, Byrd was not uncomfortable with the contradictions in himself. Though his diary recounts his many romantic exploits (including those with his own wife) he never shows much more than the most cursory remorse for his less savory actions. Indeed, it is difficult for the reader to be much more than amazed at the brazenness of a man who can thank God for having good thoughts right after he recounts having a tryst with another man’s wife.

In addition to the passages recounting his many infidelities, the diary also contains a faithful record of the disobedience of Byrd’s slaves and his subsequent punishment. Byrd was not a kind master, and beat his slaves often, and sometimes devised other punishments even more cruel and unusual:

September 3, 1709: I ate roast chicken for dinner. In the afternoon I beat Jenny for throwing water on the couch.
December 1, 1709: Eugene was whipped again for pissing in bed and Jenny for concealing it.
December 3, 1709: Eugene pissed abed again for which I made him drink a pint of piss.

Byrd often quarreled with his wife over the treatment of their slaves. These disagreements did not bode well for the slaves in question:

22. . . . My wife caused Prue to be whipped violently notwithstanding I desired not, which provoked me to have Anaka whipped likewise who had deserved it much more . . .

Byrd was, for a time, receiver general of Virginia and owned the large plantation (and large debts) his father left him upon his death. In 1709, the year he began his secret diary, he was appointed to the Council of Virginia, which meant that he spent much of his time in London. Many of the entries in his diary deal with affairs of state and the running of a plantation, as well as his ongoing education. He was a man of great learning, and most entries record which Greek or Hebrew text he read that morning (or gives the reason for which he was unable to read), and he was known for his extensive private library. He also mentions in nearly every entry having "danced my dance", meaning he performed his calisthenic exercises.

Byrd’s secret diary unfolds a picture of a man of many faults who tried daily to fix them and to improve himself in general, and who did not worry overmuch when he failed to do so.