A Place Called Freedom

A Place Called Freedom

File:PlaceCalledFreedom.jpg First edition
Author	Ken Follett
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Genre	Historical Fiction
Publisher	Pan Macmillan
Publication date	1995
Media type	Print (hardcover, paperback)
Pages	567 pp (paperback)
ISBN	0-330-34483-8
OCLC	43183527

A Place Called Freedom is a work of historical fiction by Ken Follett. Set in 1767, it follows the adventures of an idealistic young coal miner from Scotland who believes there must be more to life than working down the pit. The miner, Malachi (Mack) McAsh, eventually runs away in order to find work and a new life in London. Eventually McAsh becomes a leader amongst the working classes of the city and becomes a target for those vested interest groups who do not share his point of view. McAsh is framed for a crime he did not commit and sent to serve seven years hard labour in the Colony of Virginia where he is forced to find a new life.

Plot Summary

Malachi (Mack) and Esther McAsh are 22-year-old twins living in the community of Heugh, a coal mining settlement above the pits owned by their Laird, Sir George Jamisson, a wealthy coal and shipping magnate with two sons, Robert (by his first, deceased wife) and Jay (by his second wife). As coal miners, Mack and Esther live a slightly better existence than the tenant farmers below Heugh, but they live a near-slave-like legal existence, since by legal tradition, any man working more than a year in coal mines becomes the property of the mine owner.

On the opposite side of the mountains from Heugh is High Glen, the estate of the widowed Lady Hallim, mother to the independent Lizzie. The estate of High Glen is highly indebted, since it has not exploited its coal reserves, and Lady Hallim has managed her estate poorly. As such, she has high hopes that Lizzie will marry well and rid her estate of its debts. Lizzie is something of a tomboy, enjoying the great outdoors and hunting with a rifle over balls and dresses. In the past, Lizzie played with Mack and Esther, without her mother's knowledge.

Mack and Esther's parents are dead, but their mother was a maidservant to Lady Hallim before her marriage, and as such taught them to read and write. This encouraged an egalitarian and rebellious streak in Mack, who wants nothing better than to escape Heugh. Mack writes to Caspar Gordonson, a London lawyer and reformist, asking him if the practice of enslaving coal miners is legal. Gordonson writes back that any parent may accept "arles," (money given to pledge their child to work in the mines) but on their coming of age (at 21), they are free, unless as an adult they work a year and a day, at which point, they are the property of the mine owner.

At Sunday service, there is also a christening, and the new parents receive arles to pledge their child to work in the Jamisson mines. Mack confronts the congregation with Gordonson's letter and tells all the miners in attendance that they cannot enslave their children and that anyone not working more than a year in a mine is free. Lizzie is in attendance at the service, and while offended by Mack's upstart nature, her conscience is pricked by the plight of the mine workers. Sir George Jamisson is outraged by Mack and seeks revenge against the "trouble-maker" and Mack prepares to run away from Heugh.

Robert and Jay Jamisson both contend for Lizzie's hand. Robert, the older brother, has been given everything as the first son, and Jay as a second son has to become a wastrel army officer with gambling debts. Resentful of his older brother's preferential treatment, Jay plans to steal Lizzie. Jay knows Lizzie likes adventure, and so he offers to take her into the mines at night if she dresses up as a man. In the mines, Lizzie sees the terrible conditions of the miners, many of who are children, including the dangers from mine explosions from "fire damp" (methane gas). As fireman, Mack's job is to check the mine for explosive gas and deal with it. Seeing the conditions, she vows to never allow the estate of High Glen to be mined. As they are ready to leave the mine, the alarm sounds, indicating more explosive gas has been found. Jay and Lizzie leave the mine. While trying to safely ignite the gas in the mine with a lit torch dragged by a rope, Mack saves a child who hasn't evacuated and his mother who looked for him, just before the mine explodes. Mack becomes a hero to the miners, and announces he plans to leave Heugh, flaunting Sir George's will. Fearing that other miners will follow Mack's example, Sir George arrests Mack and sentences him to "go the round," a tortuous punishment where Mack is forced to run backward chained to a wheel that pumps out the mine for an entire night. Humiliated and exhausted, but surviving the tragedy, Mack vows to leave Heugh, although George Jamisson has vowed to guard the bridge out of town.

Jay and Lizzie are engaged to be married, outraging Robert and Sir George. Sir George says he will only agree to handle Lady Hallim's debts if she agrees to mine High Glen. Since Lizzie will not agree, Jay's mother Alicia suggests keeping the mining a secret from her by sending them away, off to Virginia to manage Mockjack Hall, a tobacco planation owned by Sir George. Sir George agrees, and gives Mockjack Hall to Jay, planning to send them on the next Jamison ship once they are ready.

Mack escapes Heugh by swimming across a river in the middle of the night. Lizzie rescues him from drowning and hypothermia, giving Mack his fur cloak. Mack escapes to Edinburgh, and then by ship to London, where he starts a new life for himself. He meets a prostitute, Cora, and her thief child accomplice Peg, and befriends them by saving Peg's life. Mack runs into Lizzie at a hanging at Tyburn, and saves her from a stampeding crowd.

In London, Mack gets work as a "coal heaver," the backbreaking work of unloading ships with coal. Tavern-keepers called "undertakers" generally manage the business of the coal heaving gangs, paying the gangs partially in unlimited liquor by deducting it from their wages. As a result, the gangs get a fraction of the pay they are due. Mack sees the injustice of the situation, and begins organizing his own, sober gang of coal heavers to unload ships quicker and more safely, sharing the wages our fairly. Other gangs form independent of the undertakers in succession.

This fair treatment angers the establishment, including an undertaker named Lenox, who also happens to be a lender to gamblers like Jay Jamisson. In exchange for forgiving debts, Lenox gets Jay to stop ship-owners from contracting with Mack and the other independent gangs. Starved of work, Mack organizes a strike. Coal shipments stop altogether. In order to stop the disruption to trade, the authorities ask Sir George, Jay, and Lenox to organize a riot that they can blame of Mack. Mack is living with Cora and Peg, and in order to find him, Jay pretends to be a john to the prostitute Cora. While Cora and Peg are trying to pickpocket Jay, they are arrested. Lenox organizes a coal delivery to a coal yard in the middle of the night. The strikers clash with Lenox's gang, despite Mack's encouragement to be peaceful, the riot act is read to the strikers ordering them to disperse, and Jay's military company opens fire on the miners. Mack is arrested and sent to Newgate Prison to await trial and he meets Peg and Cora.

Mack is denied a lawyer in his defense and is convicted. Caspar Gordonson convinces Lizzie Jamisson, who knows Jay set up Mack, to plead for Mack's life in court, which would greatly embarrass Jay in public society. Jay instead agrees to plead for Mack's life, and Cora, Peg, and Mack are sentenced to 7 year's transportation to Virginia rather than hanging.

Cora, Peg and Mack ride a Jamisson ship to Fredericksburg, VA, on the Rappahannock River, where Mockjack Hall is. Lizzie, who is pregnant with Jay's baby, finds out that Mack is one of the convicts in the ship, and assures that Mack, Peg and Cora are fed well. At Fredericksburg, Mack is sold to Jay Jamison, as is Lenox, who is also a convict. Peg and Cora are sold to others.

At Mockjack Hall, Jay tries to become an important man. He injects himself into colonial politics but as an ardent and arrogant Tory, he only results in insulting and offending everyone in Virginia. Lenox threatens the overseer of the plantation, and takes the job himself, coming into conflict with Lizzie, who tries to manage the plantation effectively. To protect herself from Lenox, she makes Mack a house servant to keep him around. They begin to develop feelings for each other as Jay returns to borrowing money and gambling, and ignores Lizzie. Lizzie gives birth to her baby girl, but it is stillborn. Depressed, she retreats from social life. Mack urges her to live her life even if it means running away, and Lizzie decides she wants to have another child with Jay. Jay won't have sex with her, and Lizzie suspects an affair. Following Jay one night, she finds him in bed with a slave woman. This drives her into the arms of Mack, who encourages her to leave Jay and run away with him over the Appalachians where they are free from the law. Cora and Peg arrive at the plantation one night, as Peg is fleeing from the law as she murdered the man who purchased her when he tried to rape her. Lizzie agrees to hide Peg.

Jay's first crop of tobacco is condemned and burned since it was not grown properly as Lizzie had urged. Humiliated and ruined, Jay goes to Williamsburg to borrow more money. While there, he finds that his brother Robert owns the mortgage on Mockjack Hall and intends to foreclose as an extra bit of revenge on Jay. While away, Lizzie and Mack prepare to sneak away south, then west, beyond the Appalachians and start a new life. Before they leave, Alicia, Jay's mother, arrives at Mockjack Hall with the news that Sir George Jamisson is dead. In his will, George left 1/4 of his estate, a fortune, to any legitimate child born to Jay within a year of his death.

Jay contemplates suicide and begins drinking himself to death. Alicia finds him in a tavern and gives Jay the news of the will. She urges Jay to find Lizzie and have a child with her, or have her murdered and marry again, so that he can have a legitimate child.

Jay organizes a search party for Mack and Lizzie, employing Lenox, preparing to have Lenox kill Lizzie if needed. Peg, Mack and Lizzie take a wagon laden with supplies South to Richmond, then west headed for Staunton. On the way, Peg is recognized, forcing them to flee East and change their plans. They abandon their wagon and continue on horseback. Along the way, Peg becomes jealous of Mack and Lizzie's love and leave the party, being captured by a bounty hunter. Mack and Lizzie search for her, but then continue on their trek toward the Cumberland Pass. They meet 2 native boys who agree to guide them to the pass in exchange for a knife, and escape into Kentucky, where they make camp.

Jay Jamisson and his posse follow Mack and Lizzie's trail to Lynch's Ferry (Lynchburg) and are about to give up hope. They encounter the 2 native boys and see that the knife has a "J" marking from Mockjack Hall. They grab one boy and the other escapes. Lenox tortures one of the Indian boys, ripping out his fingernails, and make him lead them to Cumberland Pass.

Mack awakes to find Lizzie missing, but Jay Jamison, his posse, and Peg. Jay asks where Lizzie is and threatens to shoot Mack. Lizzie shoots a deer in the distance and Jay hears the report, and goes to confront Lizzie, intent on killing her. Mack wants to give Lizzie a warning, so he runs. Lenox and his associates fire at Mack, missing, and Lizzie is alerted to the trouble. Nonetheless she is captured by Jay, and he returns to the camp. Jay is about to kill Mack, when his neck is pierced by an arrow. The Indian boy who has escaped returns with 3 warriors. They kill the posse, rescuing Lizzie, Peg, and Mack. Peg encourages Lizzie to tend to the Indian boy's tortured hand, and he agrees to guide them.

The story ends with Peg and the Indian boy leading the way west through Kentucky, Lizzie and Mack close behind, in search of the unknown.

Historical events from the novel

The novel initially deals with subject of the Payment of Arles, a form of serfdom for miners in the 18th century which meant that once a miner started work in a coal mine he was bound to the mine for the rest of his life. It was a custom for the master or landowner of the mine to give a gift to parents at the time of a child's baptism. The gift would then bind the child to work alongside the parents when they came of age.

In London the novel places McAsh at the center of the discontent of 1768 which saw working people become dissatisfied with a higher cost of living and poor wages. McAsh had become the leader of a gang of coal heavers, one of many such gangs of men who had the job of physically unloading the coal barges when they came into the city. The discontent eventually led to riots and unrest across the city.

After being caught in the middle of a riot, McAsh is captured and sentenced to transportation to America, a form of punishment which was often seen as an effective alternative to the death penalty during that period. Once arriving in the Colony of Virginia, McAsh is sold into slavery and made to work as a field hand before escaping to the western frontier and eventually finding his freedom.

Historical persons from the novel

John Wilkes - A British politician and agitator from the period. Wilkes is often referred to throughout the book, very frequently in the disparaging tones members of the gentry use, who are concerned about his politics.

George Washington - The man who would become the first president of the United States. Washington is introduced briefly near the end of the book as a speaker in a meeting held in the Hall of Burgesses. Washington suggests to the meeting that Virginia should consider no longer importing British goods.

External links

• "A Place Called Freedom". Ken Follett: My Novels. Archived from the original on 19 July 2014. Retrieved 14 July 2014.