Samuel Slater (June 9, 1768 – April 21, 1835) was an early English-American industrialist known as the "Father of the American Industrial Revolution" (a phrase coined by Andrew Jackson), the "Father of the American Factory System" and "Slater the Traitor" (in the UK) because he brought British textile technology to America with a few modifications fit for America. He learned textile machinery as an apprentice to a pioneer in the British industry. He brought the knowledge to America where he designed the first textile mills, went into business for himself and grew wealthy. By the end of Slater's life he owned thirteen spinning mills and had established tenant farms and towns around his textile mills such as Slatersville and Rhode Island.
SamuSamuel Slater (June 9, 1768 – April 21, 1835) was an early English-American industrialist known as the "Father of the American Industrial Revolution" (a phrase coined by Andrew Jackson), the "Father of the American Factory System" and "Slater the Traitor" (in the UK) because he brought British textile technology to America with a few modifications fit for America. He learned textile machinery as an apprentice to a pioneer in the British industry. He brought the knowledge to America where he designed the first textile mills, went into business for himself and grew wealthy. By the end of Slater's life he owned thirteen spinning mills and had established tenant farms and towns around his textile mills such as Slatersville and Rhode Island.
Samuel Slater was born in Belper, Derbyshire, England June 9, 1768, the fifth son of a farming family of eight children. Samuel received a basic education at a school run by a Mr. Jackson in Belper. At age ten he began work at the cotton mill opened that year by Jedidiah Strutt utilising the water frame pioneered by Richard Arkwright at nearby Cromford Mill. In 1782, his father died and his family indentured Samuel as an apprentice to Strutt. Slater was well-trained by Strutt, and by age 21 had gained a thorough knowledge of the organisation and practice of cotton spinning. Hearing of the American interest in developing similar machines, and aware of British laws against exporting the designs, he memorized as much as he could and departed for New York in 1789. This move led to the people of Belper christening him "Slater the Traitor", as they saw his move as a betrayal of the town where many earned their living at Strutt's mills.
Slater drew on his British village experience to create a factory system called the "Rhode Island System," based upon the customary patterns of family life in New England villages. Children aged 7 to 12 were the first employees of the mill; Slater personally supervised them closely. The first child workers were hired in 1790. In the reference quoted here there is mention of a "whipping room". From his experience in Milford it is highly unlikely that Slater resorted to physical punishment, relying on a system of fines. Slater first tried to staff his mill with women and children from far away, but that fell through due to the closeknit framework of the New England family. He then brought in whole families, creating entire towns. He provided company-owned housing nearby, along with company stores; he sponsored a Sunday School where college students taught the children reading and writing.
By 1800 the success of the Slater mill had been duplicated by other entrepreneurs; by 1810 Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin reported the U.S. had some 50 cotton-yarn mills, many of them started in response to the Embargo of 1807 that cut off imports from Britain. The War of 1812 sped up the process of industrialization; when it ended in 1815 there were within 30 miles of Providence 140 cotton manufacturers employing 26,000 hands and operating 130,000 spindles. The American textile industry was launched.
In the 1810s, Francis Cabot Lowell built a profitable cotton-to-cloth textile mill in Waltham, Massachusetts. By 1826, although Lowell had died, the Waltham System had proven so successful that the town of Lowell, Massachusetts, the first to use the system on a large scale, was founded by his partners in his honor. Lowell would be the model for textile towns for many decades to follow.
Slater died on April 21, 1835 in Webster, Massachusetts (a town that he founded and had become a town three years earlier in 1832 and was named after his friend Senator Daniel Webster). At the time of his death, he owned thirteen mills and was worth a million dollars. His original mill, known today as Slater Mill, still stands and operates as a museum dedicated to preserving the history of Samuel Slater and his contribution to American industry....more
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