William Byrd is the proto-type of the Virginia gentleman, that which has been referred to as "liberal patrician leadership," a concept greatly responsible for the Revolution in the next generation.

In his religion Byrd was wholly Anglican and not all affected by Puritanism. Religion for him was more of a social duty than a matter of either the head or the heart.

There is ample evidence in his writing that Byrd was a frustrated physician, but that inclination may have been much of necessity.

At his home in Westover, Byrd had one of the largest libraries in the colony -- 3600 volumes. He took an aristocratic view of writing -- that is, he viewed it as a leisure-time activity. Nevertheless, he had the writer's critical skill of being a good observer. His Secret Diary, which was discovered and decoded in the 1940s, presents an incredibly intimate picture of life on a colonial Virginia plantation.

Byrd's life may be thought of as divided into four spheres:

• civic (Civic duties often took him away from home.)
  
• business (He was a very shrewd businessman.)
  
• domestic (A slaveholder's life was extraordinarily complex.)
  
• personal (Matters of family and sex permeate the Diary.)
  

What instances of these four sphere's of Byrd's life can you find in the Diary excerpts you have read?