num_pages: 66
description: Purchase includes free access to book updates online and a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Chapters: The Pillars of the Earth World Without End the Third Twin Eye of the Needle the Key to Rebecca Hornet Flight a Place Called Freedom Night Over Water on Wings of Eagles the Man From St. Petersburg Code to Zero Jackdaws the Hammer of Eden Whiteout. Excerpt: A Place Called Freedom 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 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. 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...
language: None
title: Novels by Ken Follett: The Pillars of the Earth, World Without End, the Third Twin, Eye of the Needle, the Key to Rebecca, Hornet Flight, a Place Called Freedom
publisher: General Books LLC