Episode 27: Two Amorous Turtles

Your Most Obedient & Humble Servant: A Women's History

William Byrd II to Lucy Parke aka “Fidelia”, ca. 1705-6. In which there are a lot of old timey fart jokes. This is the second part of the Martha Washington’s In-Laws series, featuring a letter from Colonial Virginian slave-holder and satirical writer, William Byrd II. Heads up, this episode contains mentions of brutal treatment of enslaved people and sexual violence. The Letter: Byrd, William, William III Byrd and Marion Tinling. The Correspondence of the Three William Byrds of Westover, Virginia, 1684-1776. Charlottesville: Published for the Virginia Historical Society [by] the University Press of Virginia, 1977. 1: 254-56. Further Reading: Paula A. Treckel, “The Empire of My Heart”: The Marriage of William Byrd II and Lucy Parke Byrd,” in The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Spring, 1997, Vol. 105, No. 2, pp. 125-156. Peter Wagner, “The Female Creed”: A New Reading of William Byrd Ribald Parody, in Early American Literature, Fall, 1984, vol. 19. No. 2, Special European Issue, pp. 122-137. Cameron C. Nickels, and John H. O'Neill. "Upon the Attribution of "Upon a Fart" to William Byrd of Westover." Early American Literature 14, no. 2 (1979): 143-48. Accessed August 22, 2021. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25070929. Willie T. Weathers, “William Byrd: Satirist,” in The William and Mary Quarterly, Jan. 1947, Vol. 4, No. 1, pp. 27-41 Byrd, William, Wright, Louis B. (Louis Booker) (ed) and Tinling, Marion (joint ed). The Secret Diary of William Byrd of Westover, 1709-1712. Richmond, Va: The Dietz Press, 1941. Lockridge, Kenneth A., and Institute of Early American History and Culture (Williamsburg, Va.). The Diary and Life of William Byrd II of Virginia, 1674-1744. Published for the Institute of Early American History and Culture, Williamsburg, Va., by the University of North Carolina Press, 1987.