William L. Boyd Jr.

William L. Boyd Jr. (February 17, 1825 – October 31, 1888) was a slave trader, real estate broker, and steamboat captain of Nashville, Tennessee in the United States. In 1883 he was charged with murder in the shooting death of his girlfriend Birdie Patterson.

Biography
Boyd was born about 1825 in Tennessee to a father born in Virginia and a mother born in North Carolina.

The first record of Boyd as slave trader appears in 1853 when he and a partner by the name of Glover "Agents and collectors for the sale and purchase of real estate, negroes, etc., and collectors in the City-Office, 50 N. Cherry St." In 1854 Wm. L. Boyd listed for sale, via city newspaper advertisements, both real estate and "8 or 10 likely negroes." He also placed a listing for himself as a slave dealer in the Southern Business Directory published in Charleston. On the night of March 12, 1855, Albert, Tom, and Mary escaped from Boyd's "yard"; he offered a $30 for their return. In December 1855 he advertised wanting to buy "A WET NURSE, for which I will pay a good price Apply immediately."

In 1857 his stable burned down as a result of an arson fire, believed to have been started by a serial arsonist. In 1860 the offices of the Nashville Democrat newspaper, "devoted to sustaining the principles advocated by Stephen A. Douglas," were located in Boyd's building on Cherry Street. He listed his occupation as "Negro trader" on the 1860 census. His entry in the 1860 Nashville city directory read "Boyd, Wm. L. Jr., general agent and dealer in slaves, 50, north Cherry st., residence, 6, north Cherry st." According to Frederic Bancroft's Slave-Trading in the Old South, Boyd was one of at least half a dozen slave dealers, traders and buying agents working in 1860 Nashville: "Nashville, the capital of Tennessee, and the political, social and business center of the State, was advantageously situated for purchases in Kentucky and sales in northern Alabama and northeastern Mississippi....Much local and intra-state trading was a matter of course. Yet Nashville's market did not rise above the second class. Tennessee's first-class market and phenomenally large traders were in Memphis." Historian Chase C. Mooney noted, "Will Boyd, Jr., was the next most extensive advertiser in Nashville papers, but his notices were not as 'catchy' to the eye as were those of E. S. Hawkins." In 1861 it was determined in a court of law that Boyd was legally not a resident of Tennessee. The explanation for this may be related to Boyd's operation of steamboats running from Nashville down the Cumberland River to the Ohio to the Mississippi and thence to New Orleans. He had at least two such steamers, the Nashville and the James Wood.

In 1868 he brought a gun to a fistfight between his son and a Mr. Wolfe. In 1880 he lived on Summer Street with his wife Susan; he was said to be retired. In March 1883, he placed an ad "Wanted—Information of an old family Bible having belonged to John Boyd many years deceased and having recently been in the possession of Mrs Ruth Burton also deceased. Said Bible has been misplaced and all trace of it lost. A liberal reward will be paid for return of It to WM BOYD Nashville." A 1730 family Bible that roughly matches this description appears in a 2009 compilation of Tennessee family records.

He was charged with murder in the 1883 shooting death of his girlfriend Birdie Patterson. He was twice convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced 15 years in prison, albeit both verdicts were later thrown out on appeal. He was awaiting a third criminal trial when he died. He is buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery.