William Byrd: Laying Down the Line, by Garrett Channell

Join Garrett Channell, Executive Director of the Salem Museum, with a look at the life of William Byrd (1674-1744), a planter, surveyor, and member of the Royal Governor's Council. The native Virginian got his education and then practiced law in England, then returned to his American homeland to make his impact. In the 1720s he served as the London agent of the House of Burgesses. He helped establish the boundary between Virginia and North Carolina, a task which placed him in modern day Martinsville and Henry County. His diaries and manuscripts live on today in textbooks of American literature, showing both at once the values of British colonial gentry and the emerging American identity.