In his notebook of extracts from the popular school text Geography Anatomiz’d by Patrick Gordon (ca. 1700), 17-year-old Benjamin Lincoln studied the government, religion, climate, and commodities of the major countries and continents of the known world, along with the American colonies from New York and New Jersey, shown here, to Carolina. Lincoln would serve as a major general in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. General Manuscripts Bound, no. 608, Manuscripts Division.
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The diary kept by Philip Vickers Fithian (Class of 1772) while working as a tutor to the family of Robert Carter III (1728–1804) is a rich source of information about early Virginia plantation life. His diary is open to the conclusion of an entry dated December 21 describing the sounds of a harmonica being played after dinner, and to the beginning of an entry dated December 23 criticizing the treatment of slaves at Carter’s Nomini Hall and neighboring plantations. After the American Revolution, Carter came to believe that slavery was immoral and implemented a program of gradual manumission that freed his nearly 500 slaves. Gift of Mr. and Mrs. E. W. Hitchcock. General Manuscripts Bound, no. 349, Manuscripts Division.
In 1768, John Witherspoon traveled from Scotland to New Jersey to become the sixth president of the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University). He was not only a scholar and administrator, but also an influential politician. From 1776 to 1782, he represented New Jersey in the Continental Congress, where he signed the Declaration of Independence and served on more than 100 committees. In his college lectures on moral philosophy, he cautioned undergraduates like John Ewing Colhoun (Class of 1774), who took these notes, against the excesses of tyranny and unjust government. Gift of John Adrian Larkin, Sr., Class of 1913, in memory of John Adrian Larkin, Jr., Class of 1944. General Manuscripts Bound, no. 233, Manuscripts Division.