Book Shelf: Journal and Letters of Philip Vickers Fithian: A Plantation Tutor of the Old Dominion, 1773-1774

Philip Vickers Fithian was born in New Jersey in 1747 and graduated from the College of New Jersey in Princeton in 1772. The following year he accepted a post as tutor to the seven children and a nephew of Robert Carter III of Nomini Hall in the Northern Neck of Virginia.

Drawing of the exterior of Nomini Hall, the plantation belonging to the Carter family in Westmoreland County, Virginia. Historic American Buildings Survey, The Library of Congress, Washington, D. C.

During the year he spent in Virginia, Philip Fithian kept a journal and wrote letters home that describe life in Colonial Virginia which were first published in 1900. It's a fascinating view into the past.

My early Virginia ancestors were never as wealthy as the Carter family but I'm sure that was a style of life they hoped to achieve.

The Journal and Letters are available from Amazon, both as a print book and a free Kindle book. It's also available from Project Gutenberg. If you would like to see over 300 images of Fithian's writing, they are available here from the Journal of American History.

© 2014 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.