Just Don't Touch My Wife

In his article, "The History of the Dividing Line" Byrd discusses the miscegenation of the settlers and the Native American women. Byrd discusses how the troubles between the settlers and the Native Americans could have been avoided had the Native Americans just loaned out their daughters to them. He states that much bloodshed could have been avoided by this contract and the country as a whole would be more populous. What I found interesting was that he goes further and explains that even the color of the Native Americans skin would no longer be an issue because the whiteness of the settlers would wash them out in two generations.
This passage confused me the first time that I read it for many reasons. At first glance it looks as though Byrd is in favor of interracial relations and a living experience. This confused me mainly because throughout most of history this sort of situation has been strictly punished and very looked down upon. However, once I thought about it some more I realized what the main difference was. The women in the scenario are Native American. They are not "pure" white women. The cases in history that I remembered all involved white women who were "tainted" by men of color. Throughout history women have been seen as objects to be owned. A husband has rights over everything that he owns and can't have anyone lessening the value of that property. So when a man of color infringes on a white man's property, or in this case his wife or daughter, it is an act punishable by death. To Byrd, the relations between a white settler and a Native American woman were fine because she was already worth less due to her color.
In addition, the eventual mixing of the two races would not be an advancement in race relations, but a white out correction to a Native American "problem". In Byrd's mind the color of the Native Americans would eventually fade away. However, I'm sure that he would not feel the same about this mixing if it were the white females who would be giving birth to the lighter skinned children. Just so long as his white property was not involved Byrd saw no problem mixing things up in the New World.