Willliam Berry, Life of a Runaway

In the early 1840s, indentured contracts bound men, women-and even children-to years of service, all sealed by ink and promise. Young William Berry is one of them. Sold by his mother to learn the wheelwright trade, he is bound for seven years to a traveling wagon crew. But instead of training, William is worked like a beast-feeding livestock, breaking camp, and shouldering every unwanted task. Two years pass, and the lessons he was promised never come.
When William decides he has had enough, he makes a desperate choice. Before dawn, beside a quiet river, he steals away on a forgotten raft-risking everything for freedom. What follows is a dangerous journey into the unknown, where survival is uncertain and every mile could be his last. Follow William Berry as he flees bondage in search of a life of his own. if fate allows him to keep it.