358 Sources

1. Aikman, Louisa Susannah Wells, 1755?-1831, The Journal of a Voyage from Charleston, S.C., to London; undertaken during the American Revolution, (New York Historical Society, New York, 1906). [Author Information] [Bibliographic Details]

2. Alcott, Anna Bronson, 1831-?, Bronson Alcott's Fruitlands, Sears, Clara Endicott, comp. Ed., (Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Boston, 1915). [Author Information] [Bibliographic Details]

3. Almy, Mary Gould, 1735-1808, "Mrs. Almy's Journal: Siege of Newport, R.I., August 1778", in Newport Historical Magazine 1:17-36 (1881). [Author Information] [Bibliographic Details]

In July and August 1778, Americans and their French allies attacked Newport, Rhode Island, which had been occupied by the British since early in the Revolutionary War. During the siege, Mary Gould Almy (1735-1808), an ardent Loyalist, kept this journal for her husband, who was fighting on the American side. Mrs. Almy painted a graphic picture of the battle, detailed her own suffering and her efforts to protect herself and her children, and voiced her political views in no uncertain terms.

4. Ayer, Sarah Newman Connell, 1791-1835, Diary of Sarah Connell Ayer Andover and Newburyport, Massachusetts, Concord and Bow, New Hampshire, Portland and Eastport, Maine, (Lefavor-Tower Co., Portland, ME, 1910). [Author Information] [Bibliographic Details]

The everyday life of a genteel New England woman from adolescence to middle age is traced in painstaking detail in the diary kept by Sarah Newman Connell Ayer (1791-1835) between 1805 and 1835. Ayer spent her teen years in a warm family circle in Newburyport, Massachusetts, and Concord and Bow, New Hampshire. Her diary records the pleasure she derived from making visits to relatives in Andover, attending school, reading, shopping, sharing confidences with close female friends, and dancing at assemblies. The tone of Ayer's diary altered perceptibly following her marriage and the loss of her first four children, as religious values moved to the forefront of her consciousness. Conversations on spiritual matters, participating in church affairs and female prayer meetings, and recording the sermons of orthodox ministers took the place of the amusements of her youth. Ayer now applied a spiritual yardstick to distinguish her Christian friends from other people with whom she came into contact. Disappointed by her husband's lack of concern for the state of his soul, she concentrated her attention on the religious instruction of her offspring. She wrote feelingly of her continuing hopes for her children despite their failure to live up to her uncompromising standards.

5. Banister, Mary, "A Journall of Mary Banister and Esther Palmer's Travells in Maryland and Virginia, 1705", Palmer, Esther, d. 1714 Ed., in Friends' Historical Society Journal 6:133-139 (1909). [Author Information] [Bibliographic Details]

6. Bayley, Abigail Goodhue, 1756-1846, Abigail Goodhue Bayley; Mother and Good Angel of Newcastle Congregational Church and Bangor Theological Seminary, Peterson, Oscar William Ed., (Southworth Printing Company, Portland, ME, 1917). [Author Information] [Bibliographic Details]

7. Benton, Caroline Spencer, "A Trip to Niagara in 1835: Miss Caroline Spencer's Journal", in Magazine of American History 22:331-342 (1889). [Author Information] [Bibliographic Details]

Caroline Spencer (Benton), accompanied by her father and a female friend, traveled from New York City to Niagara in July 1835. In her journal, the young single woman recorded the sights she saw on the trip by canal boat and rhapsodized about the splendor of Niagara Falls.

8. Bettle, Jane Temple, 1773-1840, Extracts from the Memorandums of Jane Bettle, with a Short Memoir Respecting Her, 2nd ed., (J.& W. Kite, Philadelphia, 1843). [Author Information] [Bibliographic Details]

9. Bosworth, Joanna Shipman, 1815-?, A Trip to Washington, 1834: Papers of Joanna Shipman Bosworth, Being the Diary of a Carriage Trip Made in 1834 by Charles Shipman and His Daughters, Joanna and Betsey, from Athens, Ohio to Philadelphia, (H.M.Dawes, Chicago, 1914). [Author Information] [Bibliographic Details]

This is the travel diary kept by Joanna Shipman (Bosworth) (1815-?), an educated young Ohio woman, on a trip to Washington, D.C., with her father and sister, Betsey in 1834. Daily entries spanning the period October 6, 1834-November 19, 1834 record her observations of places visited and people encountered on the journey. Lengthy descriptions of the sights in Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., as well as an account of a visit to President Andrew Jackson are of particular interest.

10. Brayton, Patience Greene, 1733-1794, A Short Account of the Life and Religious Labors of Patience Brayton; late of Swansey, in the State of Massachusetts, (William Phillips, New York, 1802). [Author Information] [Bibliographic Details]

11. Bunting, Hannah Syng, 1801-1832, Memoir, Diary, and Letters of Miss Hannah Syng Bunting, of Philadelphia, Who Departed This Life May 25, 1832 in the Thirty-First Year of Her Age, v.1, Merritt, T., comp. Ed., (T. Mason and G. Lane for the Sunday School Union of the Methodist Episcopal Church, New York, 1837). [Author Information] [Bibliographic Details]

The spiritual development of an exemplary Methodist can be traced in the diary and letters of Hannah Syng Bunting (1801-32), a single woman from Philadelphia. Bunting's diary, begun on the day she joined the Methodist church in 1818, extends to 1832 and is supplemented by a volume of her letters to five female correspondents between 1824 and 1832. The quest for holiness dominated Bunting's life, and her writings constitute, in essence, a continuous exploration of her religious faith. Prayers and exhortations abound in her meditations, and outward chronology is inevitably subordinated to inner reflections. Initially concerned with conquering her sins and resisting the temptations of the world, Bunting turned to extending herself in grace after receiving the blessing of sanctification in 1824. She participated in all the activities of the Methodist church and wrote with feeling of her reactions to sermons, prayer meetings, love feasts, and camp meetings. She labored unselfishly on behalf of her faith, teaching Sabbath school, visiting the sick and needy, and traveling to spread the word of God. Increasingly burdened by illness in her final years, she directed her thoughts toward preparing for death.

12. Bunting, Hannah Syng, 1801-1832, Memoir, Diary, and Letters, of Miss Hannah Syng Bunting, of Philadelphia, Who Departed This Life May 25, 1832 in the Thirty-First Year of Her Age, v.2, Merritt, T., comp. Ed., (T. Mason and G. Lane for the Sunday School Union of the Methodist Episcopal Church, New York, 1837). [Author Information] [Bibliographic Details]

'The spiritual development of an exemplary Methodist can be traced in the diary and letters of Hannah Syng Bunting (1801-32), a single woman from Philadelphia. Bunting's diary, begun on the day she joined the Methodist church in 1818, extends to 1832 and is supplemented by a volume of her letters to five female correspondents between 1824 and 1832. The quest for holiness dominated Bunting's life, and her writings constitute, in essence, a continuous exploration of her religious faith. Prayers and exhortations abound in her meditations, and outward chronology is inevitably subordinated to inner reflections. Initially concerned with conquering her sins and resisting the temptations of the world, Bunting turned to extending herself in grace after receiving the blessing of sanctification in 1824. She participated in all the activities of the Methodist church and wrote with feeling of her reactions to sermons, prayer meetings, love feasts, and camp meetings. She labored unselfishly on behalf of her faith, teaching Sabbath school, visiting the sick and needy, and traveling to spread the word of God. Increasingly burdened by illness in her final years, she directed her thoughts toward preparing for death.

13. Burr, Esther Edwards, 1732-1758, Esther Burr's Journal, 3rd ed., Rankin, Jeremiah E. Ed., (Howard University Print, Washington, DC, 1901). [Author Information] [Bibliographic Details]

14. Callender, Hannah, 1737-1801, "Extracts from the Diary of Hannah Callender", Vaux, George Ed., in Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 12:432-456 (1888). [Author Information] [Bibliographic Details]

These selections from the diary kept by Hannah Callender (1737-1801) between 1757 and 1762 consist primarily of notes made during the young single Quaker woman's travels with her friends. Callender's polished descriptions of homes and gardens near her Philadelphia home and the scenery, buildings, and people encountered on a trip through New Jersey and New York mark her as a well-educated person of refined sensibility. The most fascinating passages in the diary deal with a visit to the Moravian community at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

15. Comly, Rebecca, 1773-1832, Journal of the Life and Religious Labours of John Comly, Late of Byberry, Pennsylvania, (T.Ellwood Chapman, Philadelphia, 1853). [Author Information] [Bibliographic Details]

16. Dawson, Sarah Ida Fowler Morgan, 1842-1909, A Confederate Girl's Diary: Sarah Morgan Dawson, Dawson, Warrington, introd. Ed., (Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Boston, 1913). [Author Information] [Bibliographic Details]

Though loyal to the South, Sarah Ida Fowler Morgan (Dawson) (1842-1909), a young single woman from a prominent Baton Rouge, Louisiana, family, exhibited an unusual independence of mind in her commentary on the course of the Civil War. Sarah used the diary she kept from March 1862 to June 1865 not only to preserve a detailed record of her wartime experiences--first in Baton Rouge with her widowed mother and her sister under the oversight of Union troops, then in exile in the Louisiana countryside, and finally in New Orleans under the protection of her Unionist brother--but as the repository of her candid opinions on the conduct of both southerners and northerners. Conscious of her social position and status as a lady, Sarah adhered to ingrained values of civility and charity and heaped scorn on the unthinking patriotism of southern women as well as the brutish behavior of the northern soldiers who sacked her family's home. Surprisingly resilient, Sarah was able to maintain her buoyant spirits in the face of property loss, physical injury, and social upheaval, succumbing to feelings of desperation only after learning of the deaths of two of her brothers in the Confederate army in 1864.

17. Dayton, Maria Annis Tomlinson, 1815-?, Genealogical Story (Dayton and Tomlinson), Fessenden, Laura Dayton Ed., (Crist, Scott & Parshall, Cooperstown, NY, 1902). [Author Information] [Bibliographic Details]

18. Deming, Sarah Winslow, 1722-1788, "Journal of Sarah Winslow Deming", in American Monthly Magazine 4:45-49 (1894); 5:67-70 (1894). [Author Information] [Bibliographic Details]

19. Dewees, Mary Coburn, "Mrs. Mary Dewees's Journal from Philadelphia to Kentucky, 1787-1788", in Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 28:182-198 (1904). [Author Information] [Bibliographic Details]

20. Enos, Salome Paddock, ?-1877, "The Diary of Salome Paddock Enos", Enos, Louisa I., introd. Ed., in Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society 13:370-377 (1920). [Author Information] [Bibliographic Details]

Immediately following her marriage on September 4, 1815, Salome Paddock Enos (?-1877) set out for the West from Woodstock, Vermont, with her husband, parents, brothers and sisters. She made daily entries in her "Itinerary Diary" until October 22, 1815, resumed the diary on September 14, 1816, after a winter's residence in Cincinnati, and kept it until October 5, 1816, when the family had reached the outskirts of St. Louis. Salome's diary consists of little more than notations of weather, places passed, miles covered, and the vagaries of wagon and boat travel. Occasional acerbic comments on the character of the country's inhabitants enliven an otherwise prosaic account of a westward journey.

21. Eve, Sarah, 1750-1774, "Extracts from the Journal of Miss Sarah Eve: Written While Living Near the City of Philadelphia in 1772-73", in Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 5:19-36, 191-205 (1881). [Author Information] [Bibliographic Details]

Between December 1772 and December 1773, Sarah Eve (1750-74), a young single woman living on the outskirts of Philadelphia, kept this journal for her father, who was in the West Indies attempting to recoup the family's fortunes. Sarah's journal comprises much more than a record of her routine calls and visits, for it contains the measured reflections of one whose brush with poverty has jeopardized her social status. Sarah's thoughtful comments on her precarious position as well as her acute observations on contemporary manners and fashions paint her as a person who stands out for her independence of mind.

22. Fairfax, Sally Cary, "Diary of a Little Colonial Girl", in Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 11:212-214 (1903). [Author Information] [Bibliographic Details]

This brief fragment of a diary kept by Sally Cary Fairfax, the young daughter of a prominent Fairfax County, Virginia family, between December 1771 and February 1772, consists of miscellaneous household news that the child deemed important. Appended to the diary is a 1778 letter Sally wrote to her father in New York reporting her mother's feelings at the prospect of a lengthy separation from her husband.

23. Farmar, Eliza, "Letters of Eliza Farmar to Her Nephew", in Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 40:199-207 (1916). [Author Information] [Bibliographic Details]

News of the revolutionary crisis in America dominated the correspondence of Eliza Farmar with her nephew in England. A recent British immigrant to Philadelphia, Mrs. Farmar identified her interests with her new home, but retained sympathies for her birthplace. Her acute analysis of economic and political developments in 1774 and 1775 reflects this ambivalent perspective. A letter penned in 1783 recounts the hardships encountered by the Farmar family during the British occupation of Philadelphia.

24. Foote, Sarah, "A Pioneer Trek from Ohio to Wisconsin: Sarah Foote's Journal of a Journey by Ox-Team from Wellington, Ohio to Winnebago County, Wisconsin, April and May 1846", in Journal of American History 15:25-36 (1921). [Author Information] [Bibliographic Details]

In 1846, Sarah Foote moved with her family from Wellington, Ohio, to Winnebago County, Wisconsin. Young Sarah's journal of the uneventful trip by wagon describes the countryside, road conditions, and various stopping places.

25. Frost, Sarah Scofield, 1754-1817, Kingston and the Loyalists of the "Spring Fleet" of 1783, Bates, Walter Ed., (Barnes and Co., St. John, New Brunswick, 1889). [Author Information] [Bibliographic Details]

26. Fuller, Elizabeth, 1775-1856, History of the Town of Princeton in the County of Worcester and Commonwealth of Mass.,1759-1915, vol.1, pp. 302-323, Blake, Francis Everett Ed., (Princeton, Mass., Princeton, MA, 1915). [Author Information] [Bibliographic Details]

Although the entries in this diary of Elizabeth Fuller (1775-1856) of Princeton, Massachusetts, are exceedingly brief, they convey vividly the essence of the daily life of a teenaged girl in a New England town from 1790 to 1792. Elizabeth's household duties feature prominently in the diary, in particular, her major occupations of spinning and weaving. The diary also record family and community activities, including a quilting. Elizabeth notes her attendance at meetings and supplies an account of various preachers and their sermons. Occasionally, Elizabeth expresses her feelings in this otherwise matter-of-fact diary.

27. Gibbons, Abigail Hopper, 1801-1893, Life of Abby Hopper Gibbons: Told Chiefly through Her Correspondence, vol. 1, Emerson, Sarah Hopper, ed. Ed., (G.P. Putnam's Sons, New York, 1897). [Author Information] [Bibliographic Details]

The humanitarian values that Abigail Hopper Gibbons (1801-93) imbibed from her widely revered Quaker father and espoused throughout her long life underlay her involvement in the antislavery movement, her work as a nurse during the Civil War, and her unceasing efforts on behalf of women prisoners and poor children in New York City. Gibbons's correspondence from 1811 to 1893, which includes numerous letters from relatives and friends and is supplemented by a journal kept between 1861 and 1865, amply documents her varied career in reform and charitable endeavors and, additionally, furnishes detailed evidence of the manner in which she reared her children. The advice Gibbons proffered to her daughters, and to the son whose tragic death while a student at college distressed her immensely, emphasizes the simple virtues she esteemed. Always placing service to the less fortunate above personal gratification, Gibbons embraced humility and scorned extravagance.

28. Gibbons, Abigail Hopper, 1801-1893, Life of Abby Hopper Gibbons: Told Chiefly through Her Correspondence, vol. 2, Emerson, Sarah Hopper, ed. Ed., (G.P. Putnam's Sons, New York, 1896). [Author Information] [Bibliographic Details]

'The humanitarian values that Abigail Hopper Gibbons (1801-93) imbibed from her widely revered Quaker father and espoused throughout her log life underlay her involvement in the antislavery movement, her work as a nurse during the Civil War, and her unceasing efforts on behalf of women prisoners and poor children in New York City. Gibbons's correspondence from 1811 to 1893, which includes numerous letters from relatives and friends and is supplemented by a journal kept between 1861 and 1865, amply documents her varied career in reform and charitable endeavors and, additionally, furnishes detailed evidence of the manner in which she reared her children. The advice Gibbons proffered to her daughters, and to the son whose tragic death while a student at college distressed her immensely, emphasizes the simple virtues she esteemed. Always placing service to the less fortunate above personal gratification, Gibbons embraced humility and scorned extravagance.

29. Greenleaf, Mary Coombs, 1800-1857, Life and Letters of Miss Mary C. Greenleaf, Missionary to the Chickasaw Indians, (Massachusetts Sabbath School Society, Boston, 1858). [Author Information] [Bibliographic Details]

30. Grimké, Sarah Moore, 1792-1873, Letters on the Equality of the Sexes, and the Condition of Woman. Addressed to Mary S. Parker, (I. Knapp, Boston, 1838). [Author Information] [Bibliographic Details]

31. Guerard, Mary Lucia Bull, "A Woman's Letters in 1779 and 1782", in South Carolina Historical and Genealogical Magazine 10:125-128 (1909). [Author Information] [Bibliographic Details]

The close relationship between two well-to-do young South Carolina women, Mary Lucia Bull (Guerard) and Susanna (Sukey) Stoll Garvey, was tested during the Revolutionary War. Lucia's two letters to Sukey in 1779 reported the disruption and uncertainty in her life and asserted her strong desire to be with her friend. In a letter written in 1782, after both women had married, Lucia pleaded with Sukey not to let her (Lucia's) marriage alter the feelings between them.

32. Gurney, Eliza Paul Kirkbride, 1801-1881, Memoir and Correspondence of Eliza P. Gurney, Mott, Richard F. ed. Ed., (J.B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia, 1884). [Author Information] [Bibliographic Details]

Philadelphia-born Eliza Paul Kirkbride Gurney (1801-81) was recognized as a Quaker minister in England in 1841, the same year she married Joseph John Gurney, an English Quaker. Spiritual concerns were of paramount importance in Gurney's life, and her career as a preacher for the Society of Friends was conducted on both sides of the Atlantic. Although the majority of these letters were written during her stays in England and Europe, a substantial selection of her American correspondence is included in this volume. Letters written to her mentor, English Quaker Hannah C. Backhouse, between 1831 and 1840 reveal Eliza's deepening religious commitment. A larger group of letters to friends and relatives, dating form 1851 to 1879 after she was widowed and had settled in New Jersey, provides a fuller picture of Gurney's religious service. Of particular interest are two letters written during the Civil War to President Abraham Lincoln, whom she had met, expressing the inner conflict she felt between her antislavery views and her antiwar views. This volume also contains sporadic extracts from Gurney's journal.

33. Havens, Catherine Elizabeth, Diary of a Little Girl in Old New York, (Henry Collins Brown, New York, 1919). [Author Information] [Bibliographic Details]

34. Higginson, Louisa S., "Cambridge Eighty Years Since", Higginson, Thomas Wentworth, introd. Ed., in Cambridge Historical Society Publications 2:20-32 (1906). [Author Information] [Bibliographic Details]

Louisa Higginson, wife of the steward of Harvard College and mistress of a large household, kept this diary in the form of letters to her son who was away on a business trip between October 1827 and March 1828. Consisting primarily of reports on Mrs. Higginson's activities--sewing, reading, visiting, entertaining "college gentlemen", caring for her young children and celebrating New Year's Day--the diary also paints a revealing picture of social life among the elite of early nineteenth-century Cambridge, Massachusetts.

35. Hillard, Harriet Low, 1809-1877, My Mother's Journal: A Young Lady's Diary of Five Years Spent in Manila, Macao and the Cape of Good Hope from 1829-1834, Hillard, Katherine, ed. Ed., (George H. Ellis, Boston, 1900). [Author Information] [Bibliographic Details]

36. Judson, Emily Chubbuck, 1817-1854, The Life and Letters of Mrs. Emily C. Judson, Kendrick, Asahel C. Ed., (Sheldon & Co., New York, 1860). [Author Information] [Bibliographic Details]

37. Kemble, Frances Anne, 1809-1893, Journal of Frances Anne Butler, vol. 1, (Carey, Lea & Blanchard, Philadelphia, 1835). [Author Information] [Bibliographic Details]

38. Kemble, Frances Anne, 1809-1893, Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation in 1838-1839, (Longman, Green, London, 1863). [Author Information] [Bibliographic Details]

39. Kemble, Frances Anne, 1809-1893, Journal of Frances Anne Butler, vol. 2, (Carey, Lea & Blanchard, Philadelphia, 1835). [Author Information] [Bibliographic Details]

40. Knapp, Augusta Murray Spring, 1822-1885, Gideon Lee Knapp and Augusta Murray Spring, His Wife, Knapp, Shepherd, ed. Ed., (privately printed, , 1909). [Author Information] [Bibliographic Details]

41. MacMurphy, Mrs., "Through Nebraska before Any Settlement: Journal of a Journey to California in 1853", in Transactions and Reports of the Nebraska State Historical Society 3:270-278 (1892). [Author Information] [Bibliographic Details]

Reprinted here are excerpts from the travel diary of the wife of a merchant, presumably named MacMurphy, who moved his family from Wisconsin to California in 1853. Consisting primarily of the portions of the diary recording the trip through Iowa and Nebraska, this selection includes an account of the activities of family members, particularly a young daughter, as well as comments on the terrain and weather, settlements, other migrants, and Indians.

42. Manigault, Ann Ashby, 1703-1782, "Extracts from the Journal of Mrs. Ann Manigault 1754-1781", Webber, Mabel J., ed. Ed., in South Carolina Historical and Genealogical Magazine 20:57-63, 128-141, 204-212, 256-259 (1919); 21: 10-23, 59-72, 112-120 (1920). [Author Information] [Bibliographic Details]

A surprising amount of information on the life of an older upper-class woman in colonial America can be gleaned from the brief factual entries in the journal of Ann Ashby Manigault (1703-82) of Charleston, South Carolina, which spans the years 1754 to 1781. This precise record of guests at dinner, callers, attendance at church, plays, balls, and races, and the movements of family members makes it possible to reconstruct Mrs. Manigault's customary activities. Her regular notations of marriages, childbirths, and deaths in the community establish the parameters of her social world. Illness was of vital interest to Mrs. Manigault, and her journal abounds in references to her own ailments and those of her husband, children, and grandchildren. Though she rarely mentioned public affairs in the journal, she did allude to the events of the American Revolution in South Carolina.

43. Morris, Margaret Hill, 1737-1816, Private Journal Kept during the Revolutionary War, (privately printed, New York, 1869). [Author Information] [Bibliographic Details]

Margaret Hill Morris (1737-1816), a devout Quaker widow of Burlington, New Jersey, had no doubt that it was Providence that preserved her and her children when her town became the scene of conflict between Americans and Hessian troops during the Revolutionary War. Morris noted the events of the period from December 1776 to June 1777 in copious detail in a diary she kept for her sister, frequently expressing her sympathy for the victims of the war. In addition, she willingly answered calls to render medical and humanitarian aid to needy persons, whatever their politics.

44. Morrison, Anna Tucker Rapalje, 1820-?, "Diary of Anna R. Morrison, Wife of Isaac L. Morrison", Worthington, Miriam Morrison Ed., in Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society 7:34-50 (1914). [Author Information] [Bibliographic Details]

At the time she kept this diary during the winter of 1840-41, Anna Tucker Rapalje (Morrison) (1820-?) had separated from her husband, George Rapalje, whom she had married just before her fifteenth birthday, and was traveling from New York City to Illinois with her father to find a new family home. Distraught over her unfortunate marriage, the death of her baby, and her father's financial difficulties, Anna was engaged in an ongoing struggle to control her emotions, using religion as a means of solace. Although the diary contains the usual record of occurrences on the journey, its principal interest lies in those passages in which Anna examines her feelings and speculates on her future. Anna subsequently settled in Jacksonville, Illinois, with her parents and sister, was divorced, and married Isaac Morrison in 1853.

45. Patten, Eliza Williams Bridgham, 1799-1882, "A Journey through New England and New York in 1818", in Magazine of History, with Notes and Queries 2:14-27, 90-95 (June-December 1905). [Author Information] [Bibliographic Details]

In the summer of 1818, Eliza Williams Bridgham (Paten) (1799-1882), a young single woman from Providence, Rhode Island, accompanied her father on a tour of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, New York and Connecticut. An observant traveler, Eliza filled her diary with vivid thumbnail sketches of the towns she visited, including a fascinating account of worship in the Shaker community near Lebanon Springs, New York.

46. Riedesel, Friederike Charlotte Louise von Massow, Baroness, 1746-1808, Letters and Memoirs Relating to the War of the American Revolution, and the Capture of the German Troops at Saratoga, (G.&C. Carvill, New York, 1827). [Author Information] [Bibliographic Details]

47. Robbins, Caira, 1794-1881, "Diary and Letters of Caira Robbins 1794-1881", Stone, Ellen A. Ed., in Proceedings of the Lexington Historical Society 4:61-81 (1912). [Author Information] [Bibliographic Details]

This compilation of selections from the personal writings of Caira Robbins (1794-1881), a single woman of East Lexington, Massachusetts, includes examples of the terse factual entries in her diary over the years 1809-23 as well as a few letters dating from 1828 and 1829. Robbins noted her routine activities and her visits to a sister in Montpelier, Vermont, and penned a lengthy description of a trip to Niagara Falls.

48. Steele, Eliza R. Stansbury, Summer Journey in the West, (John S. Taylor, New York, 1841). [Author Information] [Bibliographic Details]

49. Thornton, Anna Maria Brodeau, "Diary of Mrs. William Thornton, 1800-1863", in Records of the Columbia Historical Society Washington, D.C. 10:88-226 (1907). [Author Information] [Bibliographic Details]

The kaleidoscopic picture of life in the new federal city of Washington, D.C., captured in the 1800 diary of Anna Maria Brodeau Thornton (m. 1790), the wife of Dr. William Thornton, an architect and commissioner of the city, immerses the reader in the everyday world of a privileged young woman who was present during the establishment of the national government in Washington. Because of her husband's position, Mrs. Thornton was a witness to historic events and a participant in the social life of the Washington elite. Her brief but telling accounts of visits with the recently widowed Martha Washington and Abigail Adams embellish a daily record replete with details of entertaining famous personages and attending plays and assemblies. Mrs. Thornton's diary also sheds light on a variety of other matters ranging from household affairs and family finances to the role of blacks in Washington's economy. Despite its title, the diary printed here covers only the year 1800.

50. Warren, Mercy Otis, 1728-1814, "Correspondence Between John Adams and Mercy Warren", Adams, Charles Francis Ed., in Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, 5th ser. 4:317-511 (1878). [Author Information] [Bibliographic Details]

The publication of her History of the Rise, Progress and Termination of the American Revolution in 1805 led to a bitter exchange of letters in 1807 between author and revolutionary patriot Mercy Otis Warren (1728-1814) and her old friend, John Adams. Warren, whose political sympathies lay with the Jeffersonian Republicans, endeavored to defend her work against the criticisms leveled by Adams, who was disturbed by the unflattering way in which he was portrayed in he book. Her spirited letters attest not only to her intellect but to her acute political sense.

51. Wheatley, Phillis, 1753?-1784, "Letters of Phillis Wheatley", in Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society 7:267-279 (1864). [Author Information] [Bibliographic Details]

52. Whitall, Ann, 1716-1797, John M. Whitall: The Story of His Life, Smith, Hannah Whitall, d. 1848 Ed., (privately printed, Philadelphia, 1879). [Author Information] [Bibliographic Details]

53. White, Tryphena Ely, 1784-1816, Tryphena Ely White's Journal: Being a Record, Written One Hundred Years Ago, of the Daily Life of a Young Lady of Puritan Heritage, Kellogg, Fanny Ed., (Grafton Press, New York, 1904). [Author Information] [Bibliographic Details]

In 1805, Tryphena Ely White (1784-1816), a young single woman, moved with her parents and brothers from West Springfield, Massachusetts, to Onondaga County, New York. Her diary recounts her household labors, her attendance at Methodist preaching, and the social life in her new neighborhood. Of particular interest is the rapidity with which Tryphena and her stepmother were incorporated into the local female network.

54. Whitman, Narcissa Prentiss, 1808-1847, Mrs. Whitman's Letters 1843-1847, (Oregon Pioneer Association, Salem, OR, 1894). [Author Information] [Bibliographic Details]

55. Wilkinson, Eliza Yonge, Letters of Eliza Wilkinson, during the Invasion and Possession of Charleston, SC, by the British in the Revolutionary War, Gilman, Caroline Ed., (S. Colman, New York, 1839). [Author Information] [Bibliographic Details]

Eliza Wilkinson, a young widow from an upper-class family living on Yonge's Island, near Charleston, South Carolina, wrote these twelve letters to an unnamed female friend in 1782. Strongly sympathetic to the cause of the American rebels in the Revolutionary War, she paints a vivid picture of the dislocation and suffering caused by the invasion of the British. These letters, which describe in detail the plundering of her home by British soldiers and local Tories and the forced migration of her family around the countryside, convey forcefully the emotional toll exacted by these deprivations. Eliza's comments on the key issues of the crisis, interspersed with her narrative of events, attest to her familiarity with the political philosophy of the American revolutionaries.

56. Willard, Emma Hart, 1787-1870, Journal and Letters from France and Great Britain, (N. Tuttle, Printer, Troy, NY, 1833). [Author Information] [Bibliographic Details]

57. Winslow, Harriet Wadsworth Lathrop, 1796-1833, Memoir of Mrs. Harriet L. Winslow, Thirteen Years a Member of the American Mission in Ceylon, Winslow, Miron Ed., (American Tract Society, New York, 1840). [Author Information] [Bibliographic Details]

58. Wister, Sarah, 1761-1804, Sally Wister's Journal: A True Narrative Being a Quaker Maiden's Account of Her Experiences with Officers of the Continental Army, 1777-1778, Myers, Albert Cook, ed. Ed., (Ferris & Leach Publishers, Philadelphia, 1902). [Author Information] [Bibliographic Details]

When her family moved form Philadelphia to a Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, farmhouse to escape the dangers of the American Revolution, Sarah (Sally) Wister (1761-1804), a teenaged Quaker girl, decided to chronicle her experiences for her closest friend, Deborah Norris. The British and American armies were both situated near the Wisters' temporary residence and Sally's journal, which covers the period from September 1777 to June 1778, periodically mentioned her anxiety over being caught in the middle of a battle. But, for the most part, Sally focused her attention on her encounters with the American officers who stopped at her house. Clearly fascinated with the appearance and manners of these military men, Sally fashioned elaborate accounts of her conversations with them and speculated endlessly on their attributes. Caught up in her own romantic musings, Sally rarely commented on the progress of the war. Another published version of this journal is "Journal of Miss Sally Wister," Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 9 (1885): 318-33, 463-78; 10 (1886): 51-60.

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