Beyond Wm Byrd's
Dividing Line
A Proud Plalcau versus llie Wwuiiloiii
of Conceit.
Kij A. KOGFH IKIltdl
Not long ago. the state of North
Carolina revived a long-smoldering
feud with its Virginia neighbor. Gov¬
ernor James Hunt lit the fireworks
when he issued a formal proclamation
demanding an apology from Virginia
for slanderous remarks made over two
centuries ago by William Byrd II.
Byrd, the famous Virginia aristo¬
crat. had visited North Carolina in the
early eighteenth century as one of si\
commissioners assigned to draw a
boundary line between the two col¬
onics. Starting near the coast, mem¬
bers of the expedition trampled
through swamp land and pine forests
over two hundred miles into the inter¬
ior. The trip, however, did more than
just produce a new bmder: it formed
the basis of Byrd's controversial work
in colonial satire. The History of the
Dividing Line.
So biting were Byrd's observations
that Carolinians have been smarting
ever since the book was published
posthumously in 1X41. North Carolina,
according to Byrd, was at best an iso¬
lated wilderness inhabited by
uncivilized rustics who paid "no tri¬
bute either to God or Caesar.’’ I'herc
were few gentlemen to be found except
for "an occasional homebred squire"
who "never could rise higher than to
guage the size of a rum cask." North
Carolina even allegedly resembled
l.ubberland. that mythical land of ease
and plenty where the "inhabitants
lived with less labor than anywhere
else in the world."
"... Witlings I>cfame Her . . .**
While North Carolinians have ob¬
jected to the tenor of Byrd's remarks.
Virginians have generally defended
them. In fact, residents of the fabled
Mountain of Conceit have called North
Carolina the Kip Van Winkle State or
the Vale of Humility. Tarheels have
retaliated in their state song by pledg¬
ing to protect Carolina, "though the
scorner may sneer . . . and witlings
defame her." The average Carolin¬
ian's view of Virginia may have been
THE STATE. Jviv I9M
best summed up by one old Mountain
resident w'ho commented that the three
most overrated things in the world
were "homecooking, homcloving. and
the grand state of Virginia."
On the face of things. Virginians
have history on their side. There is lit¬
tle doubt that Byrd was correct in de¬
scribing Carolina as a backwoods
frontier where the genteel ways of
tidewater Virginia seemed out of
place. In fact, to many eighteenth-
century commentators. of whom Byrd
was only one. the habits of North Car¬
olinians denoted the complete absence
of civilization. An Anglican minister
w rote on the eve of the Amci ican Rev¬
olution: "The Manners of the North
Carolinians in general arc vile and cor¬
rupt. When.” he asked, "will this Au¬
gean stable be cleansed?" One col¬
onist called North Carolina “the
rudest part of the whole continent."
while another simply dubbed it "this
bad part of the world."
Some Handicaps
Such comments did not arise from
the idle spite. There were sound rea¬
sons for Carolina's unfortunate repu¬
tation. Most important was that the
colony ’s economy was woefully un¬
derdeveloped. The average settler, if
he wished to make a profit from plant¬
ing. confronted numerous obstacles.
Shortages of capital, slave labor, and a
marketable cash crop all combined to
render North Carolina’s economy less
productive than the plantation systems
of its neighbors. An even greater
handicap was the colony’s jagged
coastline. Because Carolina did not
have a single port unobstructed by
hazardous sandbars, navigating the
offshore waters was a dangerous and
expensive enterprise.
The Colony’s slow economic prog¬
ress meant that most Carolinians lived
in a world of rude subsistence. Pos¬
sessing a few slaves, if any. and a
largely uncultivated tract of land, the
average planter could afford few fin¬
ished goods, and fewer luxury items.
He usually resided in a small hut. con¬
structed of pine logs without nails, and
lit only by wooden torches.
Social pastimes for these people-
consisted of drinking rum and bouts of
gouging whereby the victors would
extract the eyes of their pool an¬
tagonists. l ess important to the
planter’s w ay of life was organized re¬
ligion. Because of a shortage of birth
ministers and money, the Anglican
Church in North Carolina remained
weak throughout the colonial era.
What exposure inhabitants had to reli¬
gion was often confined to various dis¬
senting sects, such as the Quakers.
Presbyterians. Baptists, and Meth¬
odists.
Of course, as with nearly every soci¬
ety. North Carolina did produce an
upper class of sorts. But those at the
top of the social order represented an
Williom B»rd, the colonial Virginia arulocral,
whose "Hitlory ot the Dividing Line" has hod North
Carolinians tmorting ever since
emerging elite whose style of life bore-
only a faint imprint of colonial gentil¬
ity. Thus, a French visitor, who in 1765
marvelled at the "very great Fstates"
of many Virginians, thought that there
"were very few if any rich people in
North ( arolina." Similarly, a iraveller
from Massachusetts found "less of
what is called politeness and good
breeding" in "Brunswick. Wil¬
mington. Ncwbcm. Edenton. and so
through the North province."
Different Values
Yet as backward as colonial Caro¬
lina may have appeared, contempo¬
rary critics miss the point when they
embrace the views of William Byrd
and other eighteenth-century com¬
mentators. Such men wrote from a
highly distorted perspective: t hen
view s reflected the values of their ow n
age which bear scant resemblance to
American values today. According to
ra
