Poor and Proud; Or, The Fortunes of Katy Redburn

How can an eleven-year-old support a sick mother, remain in school and preserve her self-respect when poverty threatens their home? In Boston, Katy Redburn answers hardship with honest work, making and selling molasses candy while refusing to let deprivation dictate her conduct. Her small enterprise gives this juvenile historical novel an unusual and engaging focus: a girl learning the demands of commerce while carrying responsibilities far beyond her years.Street selling brings Katy into contact with social prejudice, rude treatment, deception and the moral hazards of earning money in public. Yet the story is concerned with more than whether her business can succeed. Every transaction tests the value of politeness, fair dealing and integrity, while the contrast between genuine dignity and false pride sharpens its treatment of class. Katy’s courage, resourcefulness and compassion stand against vanity, idleness and pretension without separating moral choices from their practical consequences.Child entrepreneurship becomes both the engine of the narrative and a means of examining independence, charity and family duty. The explicit moral instruction is grounded in the everyday realities of labour: how trust is earned, why dishonesty damages trade, and how perseverance must be joined to principle. Combining a young girl entrepreneur’s struggle with practical lessons in responsible conduct, the novel presents work not merely as necessity, but as a measure of character. This book was out of print for decades and is now republished by Alpha Editions.It has been restored for today’s and future generations.This edition is not just a reprint - it’s a collector’s item and a cultural treasure.