The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1911-12-05
UNKIND VIEWS
OF A VIRGINIAN
Colonel Byrd's Impressions OF North
Carolina in 172S.
By X. NJ. FETZER, ReidsYiiie.

By X. NJ. FETZER, Reidsyilie. n. C.
We North CaroiinianS are some
times inclined to be boastful. we
ire proud Of our State-X-e are PROUD
of her history, her people. n her
institutions. Rut above all we are
proud Of her democracy. We claim
that North Carolina is the most Dem
ocratic State in the union.
it will be interesting to see our de
mocracy as William Byrd saw It IN
the old colonial days.
William Byrd was one Of the most
noted, as we'll as n OF the most
versatile, of the early Virginia aristo-
Gratis. He was born at WestoVer, a
magnificent ancestral estate on the
James River, in 1874. He died there
at the age of seventy. He Travelled
extensively in Europe, and received
most of his education abroad. He
was admitted to the bar in London,
and also became a member OF n
Kings Council and of the Royal So
ciety. He returned to Virginia, how
ever, at an early age, and became
very active as a public man there.
He is famous now as the founder or
Richmond. He was well known In
his own time as a surveyor, an eX-
plorer, and as a literary man. He
was perhaps the most highly cultured
American Of his time.
We are chiefly concerned with
what Byrd saw in 1928 when he
tween North Carolina and Virginia.
He kept a daily journal Of his i'm
pressions, which was afterwards pub
lished as THE History Of the Divid-
ing Line"
Byrd evidently received a very un-
favorable impression of the industry
of the North Carolina farmers He
c@x. ~ 1-o-ry fory ooCr fa13S in
his walks, and those were very small.
He found out on inquiry that the pee
pie made corn for themselves and
not for their stock, as cattle and hogs
of those days knew very we'll how to
take care Of themselves. He makes
the following anne
'They allow their stock to ramble
into the ~neighboring marshes and
where The maintain them
selves the whole winter long, and are
not fetched home till the spring.
these indolent wretches, during
one-half of the year, lose the adj
vantage of the milk of their cattle,
many of the poor creatures perish
the mire into the bargain. Some
who piQue themselves more upon
their industry than their neighbors,
will, now and then, in compliment to
their cattle, cut down a tree whose
limbs are covered with moss. The
trouble would be too great to climb
he tree in order to gather this prov
ender, but the shortest way (Which in
this country is always counted the
best) is to fell it, just like the lazy
Indians"
Nor did his comparison of our
worthy progenitors to the Indians
here. In another place he
makes the following rather adverse
comment:
Surely there is no place in the
world where the inhabitants live with
less labor than in North Carolina. It
nearer to the description
Of Lubberland h any other. The
men, for their parts, impose all the
work upon the poor m They
make their wives rise out OF their
beds early in the morning, at the same
time that they lie and snore, till the
sun has run One-third of his course
and dispersed all the unwholesome
Then, after yawning and
stretching for half an hour, they light
their pipes, and, under the protec-
ton Of a cloud of smoke, venture Ii
into the open air. When the wealth
er is mild they stand leaning with
both arms upon the corn field fence, |
and gravely consider whether they
had best go and TAX a small heat
with the hoe; but they generally inc
reasons to put it off till mother
time"
Edenton was, apparently, the only
own visited by Byrd. He seems to
had but small admiration for
historic little city. He says there
were plenty of mosquitoes there, but
very few people. He numbers the
houses at about forty or fifty, most
Of them small. He says that a citi-
was counted fundamentally eX-
if he had ambition enough
to aspire to a brick chimney. Jus
herself was but indiferently
lodged" he says, the courthouse |
having much the appearance of a
common barn" Edenton
had but one distinguishing feature.
according to Byrd. He said it was the
metropolis in the Christian or
Mohammedan world. so far as he
knew, where there was neither
church, chapel. mosque,
DIT any place Of public worship of any
sect or religion Whatever.