Last updated: Jan 6, 2024

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Assorted primary sources on American life in the 18th century

These 18th century primary sources include first-person accounts of life in various parts of the America in the 18th century. These include letters and journals of men and women in colonial America, as well as accounts of life in the United States after the Revolutionary War.

Maine

• Martha Ballard’s Diary, 1785-1812
• Memoir of a Revolutionary Soldier: The Narrative of Joseph Plumb Martin

New Hampshire

• Memoirs of Mrs. Abigail Bailey, who had been the wife of Major Asa Bailey, 1763-1815

Massachusetts

• Diary of Cotton Mather, 1681-1724
• The Holyoke diaries, 1709-1856; Rev. Edward Holyoke, Marblehead and Cambridge, 1709-1768, Edward Augustus Holyoke, M.D., Cambridge, 1742-1747, John Holyoke, Cambridge, 1748, Mrs. Mary (Vial) Holyoke, Salem, 1760-1800, Margaret Holyoke, Salem, 1801-1823, Mrs. Susanna (Holyoke) Ward, Salem, 1793-1856
• Adams Family Papers, including correspondence between John and Abigail Adams (1762-1801) and the diary of John Adams, 1753-1804
• Diary of Anna Green Winslow, a Boston school girl of 1771
• History of the town of Princeton, containing a diary kept by Elizabeth Fuller

New Jersey

• Philip Vickers Fithian, Journal and Letters (a student at Princeton College 1770-1772)

New York

• Journal of Gen. Rufus Putnam kept in northern New York during four campaigns of the old French and Indian War, 1757-1760
• Nancy Shippen: Her Journal Book, 1777-1800
• Letters and Journals relating to the War of the American Revolution, and the Capture of the German Troops at Saratoga, by Mrs. General Riedesel (Frederika Charlotte Louise von Massow, Baroness Riedesel zu Eisenbach)
• Memoirs of Mrs. Elizabeth Fisher, of the city of New-York, daughter of the Rev. Harry Munro, who was a Chaplain in the British Army during the American Revolution

Pennsylvania

• The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
• Extracts from the Journal of Elizabeth Drinker, from 1759 to 1807 A.D.
• Extracts from the Diary of Jacob Hiltzheimer, of Philadelphia, 1765-1798
• Sally Wister’s Journal: A True Narrative, Being a Quaker Maiden’s Account of Her Experiences With Officers of the Continental Army, 1777-1778
• Annals of Philadelphia, and Pennsylvania, in the Olden Time: Being a Collection of Memoirs, Anecdotes, and Incidents of the City and Its Inhabitants, and of the Earliest Settlements of the Inland Part of Pennsylvania

Virginia

• The Present State of Virginia by Hugh Jones, 1724
• The George Washington papers at the Library of Congress, The Washington Papers, and The George Washington Financial Papers Project
• Charlotte Browne diary, 1754-1757, 1763-1766: “describes a voyage from London to Virginia on board the ship London laden with hospital supplies as part of an expedition of thirteen transports, three ordnance ships, and two convoys carrying the 44th and 48th regiments to America. The diary includes accounts of Braddock's campaign in Virginia, Maryland, Philadelphia, and New York. At the end are some financial notes dated 1763 to 1766.”
• Diary of John Harrower, 1773-1776
• Philip Vickers Fithian, Journal and Letters (a tutor at Nomini Hall in Virginia 1773-1774)
• The Journal of Nicholas Cresswell 1774-1777 (also here; includes travel through Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, and the western frontier; see A Man Apart for an unabridged and annotated version)

North Carolina

• Journal of a Lady of Quality; Being the Narrative of a Journey from Scotland to the West Indies, North Carolina, and Portugal, in the Years 1774 to 1776 by Janet Schaw

South Carolina

• Letterbook of Eliza Lucas Pinckney, 1739-1762
• The Journal of Rev. Charles Woodmason, 1766-1768, in The Carolina Backcountry on the Eve of the Revolution

Kentucky

• Pioneer life in Kentucky: A series of reminiscential letters from Daniel Drake, M.D., to his children