Ella May Wiggins

Ella is 28 years on in 1929 when she first learns about efforts to unionize the textile workers. She has four children, and is still heartbroken over her fifth child, a son who died when he was a toddler. Ella is a strong woman who has worked hard to feed her children, though she is barely able to feed them on the nine dollars she earns for each 70-hour week she spends in a textile mill. Ella married John at 16, shortly after becoming an orphan, but John never really provided the support for Ella or the children. She is working long hours in the textile mills from the time she and John arrive in Cowpens, when their oldest daughter is a toddler. She gives birth to her second child, a son, while living there. Apparently, after her son's birth, she went directly back to work.

Ella and her...