The History of the Dividing Line betwixt VA & NC, plus The Secret History of the Line

William Byrd is arrogant throughout The History...North Carolina as well as in The Secret History of the Line. His disdain for North Carolinians and Native Americans is blatant; he does not try to conceal his grievances with either group. An example of this is seen with Byrd's reference to those on John Heath's plantation as "indolent wretches". In addition, Byrd has no trouble in praising himself and his colleagues in his text. For example, he states that those same people on the plantation "looked upon us as a troop of knights-errant".
Although arrogant, Byrd's writing is also very informative. By referring to himself in the third person as "Steddy", the history is much more like a complete story from an outsider's perspective, rather than from Byrd's. Also, the events are in chronological order, giving the reader an extensive background of early America.

One of the most disturbing aspects of Byrd's writings is his attitude towards Native American women. Several times he uses the term dark angel to illustrate these women. The connotation behind 'angel' is positive and makes one think of beauty. However, Byrd does not believe these women are beautiful. In another section of his essay, he describes the women as "seldom handsome, yet they have an air of innocence and bashfulness that with a little less dirt would not fail to make them desirable." This 'dirt' is why Byrd uses 'dark' as an adjective for 'angel'. While the 'dark' means literally a dark skin tone, it could also be eluding to Byrd's thoughts on Indians being inferior, naive, and ungodly.