William Moraley

2 Pages 445 Words

William Moraley disembarked from the ship Bonetta in Philadelphia a week before Christmas, 1729. Like Benjamin Franklin who had arrived six years earlier, Moraley landed in the City of Brotherly Love as a poor man. While Franklin was a runaway apprentice, Moraley was a bound servant awaiting purchase. Wearing a dilapidated red coat, coarse checkered shirt, bad shoes, and a dirty wig, Moraley, like the similarly ill attired Franklin, bought bread with his last pennies, and then explored the town on foot. After that, the two men’s initial hours and days in the city diverged sharply. Franklin gave his leftover bread to a friendless woman and child, attended a Quaker meeting, and sought out a reputable inn for lodging; the following day he applied for work. On the other hand Moraley sold his clothes to buy rum and contemplated the wonders of Philadelphia.
While the Bonetta docked on Market Wharf, at least forty more ships were docked along the Delaware River. In Philadelphia, the Bonetta unloaded its cargo of servants and coal, took on a shipment of flour, and in early January set sail for Lisbon. Other vessels were just clearing the port for Barbados, Madeira, Antigua, and the Isle of Man. This sea traffic formed the foundation for Philadelphia’s economy. The urban center was an epicenter through which European manufactured goods flowed to be sold throughout the Delaware Valley, while the region’s abundant grain and livestock products were carried into the city for shipment abroad. Most residents, directly or indirectly, depended on commerce with people scattered throughout the Atlantic World, from Native Americans in the backcountry, to small farmers and storekeepers in the neighboring countryside, to planters, manufacturers, and merchants operating from the West Indies to Portugal to Britain Housing construction likewise formed a vital component of the economy as carpenters and laborers built structures in response to the cityâ€...