Author’s Proof

…

Copyright James LaFond 2024

Lynn Lockhart Publisher

A Plantation America Inquiry

A Crackpot Book

…

Dust Cover

Born in 1699, “to a Freeman of London,” Loved and cherished as a child, mentored as a youth by his loving father, “in order to get his Living,” William Moraley lost his father in 1725, from whence he counted “all” of his misfortunes. From 1725 thru 1743, William, a skilled and hard-working member of “the middling class” who was regarded as “an easy, and good natured fellow, whose wants were few and cares were less,” suffered, between the ages of 27 and 44, many misfortunes, including being “bound” to no less than 8 masters. The debt-based economics of William’s Age and Country, resulted in various associated misfortunes, including:

…being deprived of his modest inheritance, being inveigled [tricked into being sold as “A Voluntary Slave”], being starved and denied water aboard a coal ship, being sold as a slave, being mistreated by a notoriously disagreeable master, wandering barefoot and homeless, being abducted and jailed for homelessness, living and hiding in abject poverty as a wandering tinker, sought and sued for extradition for FOOD debts, being deprived of a second modest inheritance, being jailed and sued for occupying his deceased mother’s house, and finally suffering defamation beyond the grave by numerous historians over the intervening centuries. Despite these many misfortunes, William enjoyed the kindness of numerous strangers, to include “an Indian king” and “a grave Quaker,” never to lose his Faith.

Blurb

In Ball of Fortune, Plantation America Historian, James LaFond, attempts a postmortem representation of William Moraley, a Christian soul, an early Modern Job, defrauded in life, starved and sickened in captivity, a drifter hunted by money grifters and law officers, and defamed even by the curators of his rare memoir.

E-Store Link