Autobiographical Narrative Essay

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Life in Colonial America

My name is John Smith and I have lived in the American Colonies for more than ten years now. I was born 40 years ago in the year of our Lord 1710, in Yorkshire England, the fifth son of a poor farmer, and of my four elder brothers, only two survived childhood. But since my father had only a small plot of land to work, he left the farm to my eldest surviving brother while having nothing to leave either me or my other brother. However, my father did not simply abandon us, I was apprenticed to a master carpenter, while my brother was sent to join the British Navy. While I have had contact from my brother the farmer, I have not heard from my brother the seaman in many years. Letters, while difficult to send and receive, are more easily sent to and from permanent homes than to or from a ship at sea.

In my mid twenties I had the opportunity to emigrate to the New World, to move to Philadelphia in the colony of Pennsylvania. By that time I was a journeyman carpenter and joiner, working for a master carpenter. We made everything from houses to furniture, cabinets, and the like for the people of Yorkshire. It was steady work, but I would never be able to gain any real wealth or standing in society. However, in the colonies there were opportunities for everyone. Since I did not have any savings, I was forced in 1735 to indenture myself to a ship's captain who then sold me to a master carpenter in the Colonies as a "Redemptioner." (Galenson 1984) For the first seven years of my time in Philadelphia, I worked with this Master as his indentured servant.

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I was not a slave, but for the first time in my life I was not free. ("Indentured Servitude")

Not being a religious man, I never got along well with those puritans or other religious zealots, so I am glad that I did not end up in the Massachusetts Colony. Up to the north, the colonists have a reputation of being strict, and since I am a hard working, but also hard playing man, that environment would not have been right for me. I also am glad that I did not end up in Charleston, or the Virginia colony, as both places are rife with the institution of slavery. I was lucky to settle in a place that was in the middle, a place where religious tolerance was the law and a free man could make his fortune.

While I am not a religious fanatic, I also believe that each man should be free, and slavery is not only an insult to God, but as a free Englishman, it is a threat to my freedom. If they can make Africans slaves, what is to stop someone from making me a slave. I have been an indentured servant, and while my master was a kind man who aided me greatly, not everyone is as lucky as I was. Much like John Locke, I believe that mankind in naturally free, but must give up some of those freedoms in order to live in a stable and secure society. But this does not include slavery, and I am very glad that most of my neighbors feel the same way. I must also state that slaves trained as carpenters would put me out….....

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