On an icy cold morning in with few better alternatives, she embarks on the Heliopolis from Marseille to try her luck in Lebanon. Eighteen other women all seeking the better life promised to them by this merchant of great repute also join the voyage.
The additional cost of accommodating these unexpected extra travellers will become a matter of financial contention a few months later. In April , in the hope of improving their living conditions, the silk workers, known locally in Lyon as canuts, had thrown the capital of Gauls into chaos during the second Canut revolt. The civil unrest became so widespread that the French state was forced to intervene, sending armed troops from Paris to reestablish order, which they had already done in and would do again in The Brunet household โ built by a spinner to provide housing for his workers and who most likely was related to Louise โ became a stronghold for the canuts.
The revolt was ultimately suppressed by force. Louise Brunet was imprisoned along with over 10, other participants in the revolt. However, as her story proves, the seed of her resolve against the established order was deeply rooted. At some point during the voyage to Lebanon, the captain deviously suggests he no longer wants to deliver Louise and the other spinners to Portalis. Louise is forced to submit to him sexually in order to reach her final destination.
A few months later, she writes to her sister to tell her about the hell of her daily life. She tells her sister how she has taught young Lebanese women not to put their health at risk in spinning mills.
Many of these women are actually six-year-old children. They were recruited from Jesuit and Lazarist orphanages financed by the affluent Lyon Silk merchants who own the factories.
