Samuel Slater

Samuel Slater (1768 – 1835) popularly called "The Father of the American Industrial Revolution"

Samuel Slater (June 9, 1768 – April 21, 1835) was an early American industrialist popularly known as the "Founder of the American Industrial Revolution."

Early years

The son of Bill Slater, a wealthy yeoman, Samuel Slater was born near Belper, Derbyshire, Britain. In 1782, Slater was apprenticed to a local factory master, Jedediah Strutt, who had been doing business with Samuel's father. As a partner of Richard Arkwright, Strutt was a pioneer in the use of the new British textile technology, and he passed along the trade secrets to Slater over the course of the seven year apprenticeship.

After the apprenticeship neared its end (around the time when Slater was 22), he began to recognize that the English textile industry was overextended, but that a fortune was to be had in the newly created United States. Bounties offered by American manufacturers for information may have influenced him. These had been offered because all attempts to obtain English models, by purchase or smuggling, had been futile. In November 1789, carrying his technical knowledge with him in his memory and despite the fact that England outlawed the emigration of engineers in an effort to keep trade secrets inside the nation, Slater left England for New York disguised as a dirty farmer.

Life in America

1789, a Quaker merchant by the name of Moses Brown had decided to start his own textile factory in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, and hired his son-in-law, William Almy, and nephew, Smith Brown, to operate the mill. Housed in a former fulling mill, Almy & Brown, as the company was to be called, set about to make and sell cloth spun on spinning wheels, jennies, and frames. Operational challenges with the frames led Brown to seek out someone with experience with textile mills and the ability to reproduce Arkwright's machine. Slater offered his services and helped to build the mill based on the Arkwright designs in his memory. The result would be the first successful water-powered textile mill in America. Samuel's wife, Hannah Slater, also invented a type of thread made of cotton.

In 1793, now partners with Almy and Brown, Slater constructed a new mill for the sole purpose of textile manufacture under the name Almy, Brown & Slater. This 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.

In 1798 Samuel Slater split from Almy and Brown to build his own larger mill in partnership with his brother John, which he called the White Mill. Slater estimated his wealth at close to one million dollars, and, when he died, he owned all or part of thirteen textile mills. he later died on April 21, 1835 in Webster, Massachusetts. He is buried in Mount Zion Cemetery in Webster.

Legacy

Slater brought the knowledge of English textile machinery to America, where he attempted to perfect it. He opened up the first true factories inside the United States. His factories employed a division of labor into tasks based on skill and age to ensure smooth operation and ensure an efficient utilization of the available labor force. Child laborers were employed in Slater's mills, but the employment of children was common during this epoch. Also, Slater is said to have treated children more humanely and fairly than his English counterparts.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Bagnall, William R. Samuel Slater and the Early Development of Cotton Manufacture in the United States. Middletown, CT, 1890.
• Cameron, E. H. Samuel Slater, father of American manufactures. Freeport, ME: Bond Wheelright Co., 1960.
• Evans, Harold. They Made America. New York & Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 2004. ISBN 0-316-27766-5
• Samuel Slater: Hero or Traitor?. DVD. 2005; Derbyshire, U.K.: Maypole Promotions (Milford), 2005.
• Old Slater Mill Association. Welcome to Slater Mill. Welcome to Slater Mill Retrieved November 6, 2007.
• White, George S. Memoir Of Samuel Slater: The Father Of American Manufactures, Connected With A History Of The Rise And Progress Of The Cotton Manufacture. Kila, MT: Kessinger Publishing, LLC, [1836] 2007. ISBN 0548205337

External links

• Site about Slater and his mill Retrieved November 6, 2007.
• Corporation for Public Broadcasting - Who Made America? Samuel Slater - American Factory System Retrieved November 5, 2007.
• Slater, Samuel - The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Retrieved November 6, 2007.

Credits

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