William Moraley was definitely a man of character. He documented his life as if he were such a prominent man who made history. Even though he did nothing to impact our world in any way he did document some entertaining stories as well as important events. Moraley managed to talk about the different classes of people, servitude in America, religion, and different races of people that he came in contact with in his life. While this book was a little hard to read since Moraley jumped around too much, it did give me a little more information on what was going on in America in the 1700s.
In the beginning of the book Moraley starts by talking about what it was like to be a part of the upper class in England. His family had money and he was going to inherit it some day. However, when his father died things changed for the worst and he was no longer going to just be given money and he was reduced to poverty. No longer was he apart of the upper class, but instead he was now a member of the low class in society. Since his mother remarried and refused to give him any of the money that he was supposed to inherit, so he decided that he could no longer just wait and hope that he would get money. Instead he made a plan to set out to America and try to make a living for himself by finding a job and earning money on his own. So Moraley set off on a ship heading out for America where he became bound to an attorney and was to work as a watch maker.
After deciding to sell himself for a term of years, he went on with his adventure becoming an indentured servant to American plantations. Moraley liked to go off topic a lot in his autobiography and a perfect example of this was in chapter two where he decided to write all about a man he met, Sir George Sonds, while sailing on towards America. The story was truly irrelevant and confused me as a reader since it took me off of the Moraley and just brought me to a random topic. After wasting a chapter on Sir George Sonds, Moraley then writes about what life was like boarding on a ship. The men on the ship were given limited rations of water and food, so they all decided to drink a lot of salt water and for food they caught dolphins and flying fish to eat. Finally the ship landed in Philadelphia and men were being sold off to different masters, but Moraley wasn’t one of them. Since Moraley hadn’t been assigned to a master he explored Philadelphia and got to see all it had to offer. He fell in love with Philadelphia and wanted nothing more than to be able to settle down there, but wasn’t able to when he was finally assigned to a master in Burlington.
When he met up with his Masters daughter he was stripped of his rags and given an old coat and a torn shirt, but was reassured that the clothes were only temporary and that he could expect better. This was the first time in the book that Moraley expressed a sense of respect between a master and an indentured servant. It let me know that indentured servants are treated better than a slave would be treated, even though both work under a man. He was even allowed to walk into the town by himself, which I thought was out of the ordinary and surprising since he is a servant.
The town had a church and two Quaker meetings. The church sent out missionaries to teach people about Christianity and the Quaker meetings were yearly meetings that consisted of its members doing charitable acts for the poor. Moraley described the town as a beautiful place, but still he loved Philadelphia and wanted to return so he expressed to his master that he wanted to be given to another master, one that would be in Philadelphia. Of course his master didn’t grant him this wish so Moraley decided to run away, but was caught and arrested. His master released him making him promise that he would finish his term of servitude. Again Moraley lets his reader know that he was treated well as a servant because even after running away his master bailed him out of jai, treated him with respect, and even let him leave two years before him term was finished. After being released early from his term of servitude, he was crossing the Delaware River in a canoe with a woman when the canoe tipped, so his first instinct was to save her life. Her family repaid him by paying him and taking him in as their new servant in Pennsylvania. This family, just like the other, gave him so freedom to do some of the things he wanted to, treated him respectfully, but also it was almost like he was on equal terms with tem as if he were just part of the family. In Pennsylvania, where he started his new term of servitude, he got to see different plantations and see how they were managed.
Plantation owners had to hire a lot of English servants and Negro slaves from Africa to clear the land. Since the farmers didn’t pay rent or pay their servants or slaves for their work, Moraley said that they were the richest farmers in the world. The slave’s conditions were very bad since there were no laws in favor of them. If they trespassed anywhere they were given a severe punishment, and then forced to get married because this made them easier to handle and it would also prevent them from running away. After getting married if the slaves were to run away and get caught they would be whipped and some would die, but since there was no law against killing your slave, the masters never got in trouble. Also if another person kills a farmers slave than all they have to do is pay the value to the master besides damages that may occur due to the loss of the slave in the business. Next Moraley goes on to talk about the Indians.
He believed that they were beautiful people and he also wrote about their relationship with the Governor and the council. The Indians had special benefits that stated that if someone were to kill them than they had a chance to be punished, but if that person were to refuse to be punished under the law, than the Indians were able to punish them any way they pleased. Not only were they able to regulate punishment, but they also were given fire arms that were helpful in war.
After ending his servitude in Pennsylvania he leaves and ends up getting set up with a woman that he doesn’t love, but he knows that she would be able to take him out of poverty. They get engaged and when he goes out to celebrate his engagement he gets so drunk and his ring was stolen and sold. After that his fiancé left him because she saw how irresponsible he was and even though he didn’t really love her he was heartbroken. Finally at the end he returns back to England where he lived with his mother until she died. He wasn’t given any information about her will and then had to sell the home. All the money he go from it he paid off his debts and his life was pretty hard, but he ended by saying that he had to stay positive no matter what.
In the end Moraley was a person that I believe was a little slow and though he gave some information about the slave laws, Indians, Quakers, and religion, he wasn’t influential in any way to our history. I believe that he was just a man that wanted to write about his life and did exactly that and it didn’t turn out the way that he would have liked. He might have looked up to Benjamin Franklin, nut unlike him Moraley wasn’t a prominent individual and all that I learned from him was how indentured servants are treated and how they become servants in the first place, and a little bit on the slave and Indian laws. Other than that this book was confusing to read and I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone.
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