Living Freight
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4.1 out of 5
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Based on 7 Ratings and 2 Reviews |
Book Description
Like thousands of children of England's Industrial Revolution, Emma has had to grow up quickly. In 1862, because of the American Civil War, little cotton was being shipped to the mills of England and times were tougher than usual. When Emma's mother dies, there are few options left open for the girl. Women and children worked more than a sixty hour week but were not paid enough to live on.
Emma... More
Like thousands of children of England's Industrial Revolution, Emma has had to grow up quickly. In 1862, because of the American Civil War, little cotton was being shipped to the mills of England and times were tougher than usual. When Emma's mother dies, there are few options left open for the girl. Women and children worked more than a sixty hour week but were not paid enough to live on.
Emma promised her mother to stay away from the workhouse, where young girls often turned to prostitution to stay alive, so she runs away when the bailiff comes to fetch her. Taking her mother's ring and personal letters (which Emma is unable to read), she sets off for the countryside, a place her mother has always described as beautiful and clean. On the way, she overhears two men talk of British Columbia and imagines it as a land glittering with gold.
After several days on the road, cold, wet and hungry, she finally is taken in by Mrs. Barnes, wife of a village parson. Eventually the parson hears of a plan to send destitute orphan girls to the colony of Vancouver Island and Emma finds herself on the first "brideship" to arrive in Victoria.
After losing her mother, being abandoned by Mrs. Barnes, and seeing her only friend die during the voyage, Emma is wary of getting close to anyone. In Victoria she finds work helping Mrs. James Douglas, the governor's wife. Although Mrs. Douglas is good to her and Emma also meets a potential friend in Edward who works at a nearby farm, Emma keeps them both at a distance.
Emma decides to sell her mother's ring to go to British Columbia and make her fortune in gold. When she attempts to sell it, she meets a man who claims the ring is rightfully his, a gift to his betrothed back in England. They finally realize he is Emma's father, a father she always believed to be dead. In fact, he had left England not knowing about Emma, hoping to make his fortune in California and come back to marry her mother. Emma wants nothing to do with him.
Eventually, with a little help from Amelia Douglas, Edward, and her mother's final words in the papers Edward reads to her, Emma finds she is able to give the father-daughter relationship a chance.
Publisher | Roussan Publishers |
Binding | Paperback |
Reading Level | Ages 9-12
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# of Pages | 174 |
ISBN-10 | 1896184324 |
ISBN-13 | 978-1896184326 |
Publication Date | 04/01/1998 |
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