If you are unfamiliar with North & South it is set in Milton during the industrial revolution. Specifically, Milton is a town that is made up of multiple cotton mills that are run by a few rich men and then most of the lower classes work for them. The conflict that happens in the book is that mill workers go on strike specifically facilitated by the union leader Nicolas Higgins. The strike is eventually broken but the mill owners are wary of those involved in the union and specifically the leaders. Eventually, Nicolas Higgins and Mr. Thornton (main male protagonist) come to see eye to eye and understand each other. Mr. Thornton is made to better understand the plight of the workers and Higgins becomes less of a radical union leader.
That Higgins seems to compromise his beliefs about workers rights in favor of supporting "masters" more irks me. I can theorize that Elizabeth Gaskell wouldn't want to incite any strong communist leanings and could probably be understood and more of a centrist. She wanted "masters" to treat laborers better but laborers should know their place in society.
As a young teenager, I didn't particularly understand the labor movement or the purpose but reading this book helped me to understand the labor movement and the need for workers rights. That the "masters" lived in luxury and style while their workers struggled to survive in cesspits of filth is abominable. That the "masters" also willfully ignore their worker's struggles and don't listen to the idea that well-fed and well-treated workers make for an overall better profit is frustrating. The themes and ideas from this novel are still relevant today in a society that is more and more anti-union and anti-workers rights.
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