The Daring Ladies of Lowell: Kate Alcott

This was an interesting historical fiction novel about the textile mill girls working in Lowell Massachusetts in the early 1800's. The girls work long hours in wet conditions inhaling cotton fiber all day. The cotton builds up and they cough up cotton balls and get very sick. Alice, like a lot of girls in the mill, leaves the farm to find a better future for herself. She becomes friends with Lovie, who is then found murdered by the end of the book. A local preacher had gotten Lovie pregnant and then tried to have the baby aborted, when that didn't work he killed her. The court found him not guilty and he is set free. Alice falls in love with the mill owner's son. I liked the historical part better than the romance, but it was still an interesting book.