Call Number:

C0307

Repository:

Princeton University Library: Manuscripts Division

Extent:

• 1 box
• 0.4 linear feet

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Philip Vickers Fithian Journal Edited by John Rogers Williams, Box and Folder Number; Special Collections, Princeton University Library.

Date:

1899-1900 (inclusive)

Creator:

Fithian, Philip Vickers, 1747-1776

Form:

Manuscripts for publication.

Abstract:

Consists of the textural material used by John Rogers Williams for his edition of Philip Vickers Fithian: Journal and Letters, 1767-1774. Fithian's journal of his life tutoring on a Virginia plantation is one of the most valuable sources of information on early Virginia plantation life and slavery.

A graduate of Princeton in 1772, Philip Vickers Fithian became a tutor to the family of Robert Carter III at his "Nomini Hall" plantation on the Northern Neck of Virginia. His journal of his time there is one of the most valuable sources of information on early Virginia plantation life and slavery. He later joined a New Jersey state militia regiment as chaplain and died near Fort Washington on 8 October 1776.

The collection consists of the typed manuscript (carbon) of the textural material used by John Rogers Williams for his edition of Philip Vickers Fithian's journal and letters, including copies of letters, exercises, and lectures while Fithian was at Princeton (1770-1772, Class of 1772), journal notations and letters while he was a tutor at Nomini Hall in Virginia (1773-1775), and journal entries during two western tours (1775-1776) and the Revolutionary period (1776). Also present are letters (1900-1902) received by Williams concerning his edited volume. Note that the published volume did not include the 1775-1776 material. Those years were covered in Vol. 2, edited by Robert Greenhalgh Albion and Leonidas Dodson and published in 1934 under the title Philip Vickers Fithian: Journal, 1775-1776.