Sing Me a Song / Stratton Press (ePub)

It is a time of great change and new opportunities for women in rural New England.

Fifteen-year-old Barilla Taylor instantly recognizes the possibility of new vistas and the promise of a brighter future when a man comes to her small Maine community to recruit young women to work in the textile mills in Lowell, Massachusetts.

Despite her stern father's protests, headstrong Barilla gladly leaves the grueling hardship of farm life behind to seek her fortune in the large, bustling town.

She soon discovers that though she has escaped the bleak prospects of life in Maine, new and equally difficult challenges await her. But as Barilla grows accustomed to the long, demanding, and painfully tedious hours of mill-work and the austere accommodations she shares with her coworkers, she is rewarded with her first taste of independence. In her free time she forges new friendships, enjoys the excitement of town life and attracts the attention of more than one suitor.

In this engaging portrait of a spirited young woman of sparkling intelligence and resolute grit, author Virginia C. Taylor vividly evokes the heady exhilaration felt by the young people from rural communities who flocked to the towns in hopes of attaining a better life during the Industrial Revolution.

Told in a hauntingly authentic voice, Sing Me A Song is an exquisitely poignant, quintessentially American story that resonates long after the last page is turned.