The Mill - 2 ª Season

It is 1838 and whilst John and Daniel celebrate the reprieve of the Tolpuddle Martyrs the new Poor Law drives economic migrants from Southern England to the mill in the form of agricultural worker John Howlett and his family and shoemaker Abe Whittaker and his grandson Will, who takes a shine to Esther. Hannah has also brought Peter, a freed slave from the former plantation, to work in the garden whilst Robert is now an MP and younger brother William, the father of Susannah's eldest child, is in charge of the mill. Esther threatens to tell Hannah of her son's indiscretion unless he recognizes when her indentures end and loans her money for sister Martha, still unemployed. She is successful but wages are cut, William attempting to blame the fact on the Corn Laws. However Daniel knows that William intends to spend the money saved on more machinery. John Howlett fails to see this and refuses to countenance Daniel's proposal that they espouse the union though Peter is more sympathetic.

William Greg appoints Howlett as the mill's over-seer, aware that his gratitude will make him compliant, but his ignorance of the machinery brings him into conflict with Daniel, who accuses him of running it too fast. Daniel is proved right when Howlett's son Jack is almost crushed under a loom and Howlett is relieved of his duties. Esther is now eighteen and a paid worker and she leaves the apprentice house to live in a basement cellar, where she flirts with Will. She is given domestic help by Susannah and Daniel, the latter suggesting she joins the union to gain female support. Mill-girl Miriam is befriended by Peter who has returned from a tour talking about his time as a slave and who comes to work as Daniel's assistant though the friendship provokes gossip from the spiteful Patience.

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.

Six months have passed and Daniel learns that the Chartist petition to parliament has been rejected and no changes made. Several Chartists want to march on London but John Docherty and Daniel see no point. To make things worse an economic down-town leads to redundancies at the mill, the apprentice boys being sent to the workhouse though Miriam gets a job at Lancaster mill whilst Daniel and Susannah take in her brother George. Esther's baby is born and Will agrees to support her, offering marriage but is angry when she turns him down. The Howletts receive bad news when a letter arrives to inform their eldest son Job, a soldier, has been killed. Peter confronts Hannah with his belief that his grandfather was killed on the plantation by her nephew Vernon Greg but she denies it, telling him that she has no nephew Vernon and the old man died of alcoholism.

With the economic slump continuing Greg announces further wage cuts and reduced hours in line with other mill-owners. To combat opposition troops have arrived and Howlett is appointed leader of a group of special constables. Will, also out of work, pawns his tools, giving money to Esther, with whom he is again close. Daniel is anxious to call the workers out, hoping that they will be part of a national strike. Hannah, severely ill, receives a letter confirming all Peter's accusations about his grandfather's murder. She is not to know that the murderer was mill manager James Windell, who burns the evidence before she can see it and fobs Peter off. An angry Peter gives the signal for the hands to strike and join the other marchers, freeing the occupants of the work-house.