The Silent Partner (1871) and "The Tenth of January" (1868) were among the earliest realistic portrayals of industrial life--and social injustice--in the United States. The novel focuses on Sip, a mill worker, and Miss Kelso, the silent partner in the mill after her father's death. The lives of these two women intersect as worker and owner as they both reject marriage proposals in favor of new vocations--underscoring Phelps's vision that, regardless of class, women can be united around their right to work.