Summary

The novel opens with a Prologue, which is an advertisement in the Gaston Transom-Times on Thursday, April 4, 1929. The ad, paid for by “the Council of Concerned Citizens of Gaston County” (1), calls for action against union organizers and claims that the ultimate goal of these unions is the overthrow of the American government.

Chapter 1 is titled “Ella May,” and is dated Saturday, May 4, 1929. Ella May Wiggins grew up in the mountains of Tennessee and now lives in Bessemer City, North Carolina. She does not really feel at home here, but she does not remember a home she wants to return to either. On this day, she is in the office at American Mill No. 2, having been summoned from her job in the textile mill. Ella thinks about her life while she waits. Her husband John was the father of her four older children, but...