A Place Called Freedom

A Place Called Freedom is a work of historical fiction by the British writer 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 novel begins with the Payment of Arles, a form of serfdom for miners in the eighteenth century which meant that once a miner started work in a coal mine he was bound to that mine for the rest of his life. The custom was for the master or landowner of the mine to give a gift to the parents at a child's baptism, which then bound the child to work alongside the parents when they came of age.

Malachi McAsh runs away to London in search of work and a new life. There he becomes a leader among the working classes of the city at the time of the discontent of 1768, when working people grew dissatisfied with a higher cost of living and poor wages. He leads a gang of coal heavers, one of the gangs whose work was to unload the coal physically from the ships.

His prominence makes him a target for the vested interests that do not share his point of view. He is framed for a crime he did not commit and sent to serve seven years of hard labour in the Colony of Virginia, where he has to find yet another new life.