Secret Histories of the Virginia–North Carolina State Line: A Template for Literary Interventions into Property

Abstract

This article tests the value of using William Byrd’s Secret History of the Line (c. 1730s), which chronicles the running of the Virginia–North Carolina boundary, as a guide to the state line today. Byrd’s Secret History belongs to a special genre of literature instrumental to land survey projects and property making. Byrd wrote both to entertain and to promote settlement. That Byrd’s account is so well-written—witty, bawdy, and vividly descriptive—contributes to its lasting influence over the region. Thus Byrd offers a valuable field guide not only to the history but to the entanglement of culture and nature that continues to make this place. Furthermore, Byrd’s text inspired Susan Howe’s long poem “Secret History of the Dividing Line” ([1978] 1996), which critiques the legacy of Byrd’s colonialist landscapes. Both Byrd and Howe expand our understanding of property as a literary genre, shaped by storytelling and graphic representation, and so open up more imaginative and concrete ground for our own intervention into the places where we live.