36 - The Secret Diary of William Byrd of Westover (1709)

Literary Hangover

Hello all! In this episode, we begin with Matt telling Grace and Alex about two books, Colonel Parke of Virginia: "The Greatest Hector in the Town" by Helen Hill Miller on Byrd's incredible father-in-law, Daniel Parke, and Perry of London: A Family and a Firm on the Seaborne Frontier, 1615–1753 on the Perry tobacco merchant family. Then, a discussion on the January 6 Capitol riots in the context of Bacon's Rebellion. Then we discuss the first year of William Byrd's Secret Diary, from 1709, with special attention to his behavior toward his slaves, servants, and other subordinates.

Sources

The Secret Diary of William Byrd of Westover, 1709-1712, ed. Louis B. Wright and Marion Tinling (Richmond: The Dietz Press, 1941

Price, Jacob M. Perry of London: a Family and a Firm on the Seaborne Frontier, 1615-1753. Harvard University Press, 1992.

Miller, Helen Hill. 1989. Colonel Parke of Virginia: the greatest hector in the town : a biography. Chapel Hill, N.C.: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill.

Rice, James D. 2012. Tales from a revolution: Bacon's Rebellion and the transformation of early America. New York City: Oxford University Press.

Washburn, Wilcomb E. 1957. The Governor and the rebel: a history of Bacon's Rebellion in Virginia. Chapel Hill: Published for the Institute of Early American History and Culture at Williamsburg by the University of North Carolina Press.