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FOUR The Family Life of William Byrd William Byrd was not a callous man, nor an impassive one. He was certainly not crazy. Yet, in the spring of 1710, as his little boy lay dying, he displayed an indifference that is baffling if not bizarre. For more than three weeks, while his son's fate hung in perilous suspension , Byrd scarcely troubled to try to turn the course of the fatal fever. He hardly bothered to treat the child himself, though he diagnosed and dosed friends and veritable strangers on half a dozen occasions during the same days. He did not call in another local medical expert for almost a week, though he often sought such assistance more speedily when his slaves were sick. And he never asked the man back again, though the erratic oscillations of the illness invited expertise to the very end.1 Instead, he simply pursued his ordinary businesses and pleasures.At one point, undeterred by driving rains that left him "wet to the skin," he abandoned the boy for a couple of days of visiting with friends and outlying overseers. At another point, undisturbed by a fleeting thought of his "affliction," he passed his day in playing billiards, gossiping with From Perspectives inAmerican History 12 (1979): 253—311. 1. The Secret Diary of William Byrd ofWestover 1709-1712, ed. Louis Wright and Marion Tmling (Richmond, Va., 1941), May 12—June 3, 1710. For the three times Byrd treated his son, May 12, 26, 30; for the six times he treated others, May 18, 19, 22, 27, June 2; for his one appeal for outside assistance, May 17; a neighboring woman did come a couple of times, on May 18 and May 27, apparently quite on her own intiative, but Byrd neither consulted her nor followed any directives from her. Unless otherwise indicated, all dates refer to entries in Byrd's diaries. 97 98 ALMOST CHOSEN PEOPLE guests, eating berries, and preparing medicine for a neighbor's gout. At no point did he ever stay up with the child at night or even seem to worry much whether the lad would live or die.2 On the day before the fateful one, Byrd looked after an ailingretainer rather than his own firstborn son. On the last evening of the boy's life, Byrd gave up his customary stroll around the plantation to entertain guests rather than to spend a few final hours with his child. On the morning that his son died, Byrd received the news with resignation rather than any discernible distress or grief. "God gives and God takes away," he reasoned; "blessed be the name of God."3 Beyond that moment of laconic lamentation, Byrd scarcely seemed affected at all. He did notice that his wife was "much afflicted" and did wish that she might have "submitted . . . better" to the divine design. But then he simply resumed his regular rounds, as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened. He attended to dinner for his house guests. He rued the recurrence of his week-old bellyache. He watched the weather and walked in the garden when the skies cleared in the evening. And he went to bed that night with "good thoughts, and good humor."4 The day after the boy's death, Byrd was concerned primarilywith his own unsettled stomach. He studied his symptoms closely and recorded his unsuccessful treatment earnestly.He busied himself with letters from his fellow planters. And he never experienced any rush of heavyheartedness or any flood of feeling. He hardly departed, indeed, from his daily routine, except that he kept an eye on his wife to be sure that she was not unduly moved.5 On the day of the funeral, he still remained untouched by any sentiment of calamity. He did refrain from his regular reading in Greek, but only "because [he] prepared to receive company." He did note carefully 2. May 15—16, 22, 1710. Sec also May 25, a week before his boy's death, when all Byrd could think about was his own discomfort in the heat of the Virginia spring. 3. June 2, 3, 1710. 4. June 3, 1710. 5. June 4, 1710. Over the next ten days he monitoredhis wife's melancholia, noting with approval the occasions when she "kept within the bounds of submission"; see June 5-14, 1710. As for Byrd's bellyache, John Walzer shrewdly suspects that it was a somatic symptom of grief for the lost child ("A...

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