Philip Vickers Fithian, Journal and Letters, 1767-1774 Student at Princeton College, 1770-72, Tutor at Nomini Hall in Virginia, 1773-74

Philip Vickers Fithian's journal and letters capture a young man's life unfolding between Princeton and a Virginia plantation, on the very edge of revolution. History is suddenly, vividly near. Recorded between 1767 and 1774, this colonial era personal diary and eighteenth century letters collection follows Fithian as a Princeton College student and, later, as tutor at Nomini Hall in Virginia. His keen observations on sermons, studies, courtship, hospitality, and the presence of enslaved people turn a primary source colonial journal into an intimate portrait of daily life in early America, from austere college chambers to the uneasy elegance of colonial Virginia plantation life and 18th century Virginia society. For colonial history students and for early American historians, the Philip Vickers Fithian journal has long been valued for its unvarnished detail: a humane window onto pre Revolutionary War America and colonial American social history. Yet its candid voice and vivid scenes also speak to readers curious about how people thought, studied, worshipped, worked, and entertained themselves, whether in Princeton college student life or among the planter elite of the Tidewater. Both a rigorous historical source and a compelling human story, it is equally at home on the scholar's desk and in the hands of the general reader or classic-literature collector. Republished by Alpha Editions in a careful modern edition, this volume preserves the spirit of the original while making it effortless to enjoy today - a heritage title prepared for readers and collectors alike.