Silent Cauldron

<p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>In 1830s America Sam a young woman mistaken for a boy dares to invade the horse-breeding world of men. She succeeds at first but witnesses an assault that could destroy her closest friend and tip the balance of power between two monied families: one with social clout their fortune waning and one with new money linked to the slave trade.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>To save her friend Sam stays silent yet in a twist of influence she's convicted of attempted murder of the new-money son a boy attracted to the boy Sam is thought to be. She's sentenced to uncountable years in Pennsylvania's Eastern State Penitentiary a supposedly kinder prison where each prisoner is kept in strict silence in a solitary tomb-like cell with one small skylight. </span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>​ </span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>As a Quaker silence has always been healing for Sam but when time grows amorphous and the guards' attentions turn vengeful her grip on reality is threatened. A saving grace comes in the form of Willa up from underground pipes a prisoner much like herself who keeps hidden in Sam's cell someone to confide in someone who knows the worst of what might come. As Sam nears madness Willa plots the guards' destruction a plan that will either ensure Sam's release and her own or end in death for both.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>This story of psychological suspense explores the tensions a girl experiences when she wants wider horizons than what the prevailing society deems appropriate. Facing the dangers of entering these uncharted worlds she's forced to navigate the juxtaposition of truth and illusion enduring a silence her oppressors turn into a sword a sword she must learn to wield herself. </span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>​</span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Based on true conditions in Philadelphia's Eastern State Penitentiary now closed and turned into a museum this story serves as a reminder of the problems that persist in prisons across the country.</span></p>