Learning that a Chartist meeting is to be held at nearby Kersal Moor but on a Monday Daniel requests that the mill closes for the day to allow the hands to attend. Most are nervous as to choosing to go so Esther suggests a secret ballot, as a result of which the mill shuts down. Daniel is saddened that many of the workers just wanted a day off but he is heartened by the enormous regional response as thousands attend. Some of the younger girls are also inspired by the meeting to deal with the bullying Patience. Esther and Will begin an affair but his family finds out and Howlett persuades the boy to stop seeing her whilst Miriam and the newly-freed Peter grow close as she teaches him to read and he tells her of his life as a slave. He also informs her that he wants to track down a man called Vernon, whom he knew in Dominica and is now in England.
—don @ minifie-1