The Free Man

The revolutionary patriot known as Henry Free had come to America as the boy Henner Dellicker—his new life as different as his name and the childhood he left behind in Germany. He had traveled to colonial Philadelphia in a ship crowded with starving emigrants, only to discover that it was indentured servitude, not freedom, to which he sailed.

Conrad Richter's 1943 novel, now restored to print, tells the rousing story of Free's journey, of his time in service, and of his struggle for freedom—...