Samuel Slater
1768 – 1835 American industrialist, textile manufacturer
English-born manufacturer who carried British spinning technology to the United States and built its first successful cotton mill.
Samuel Slater learned the workings of Arkwright's spinning machines as an apprentice in England, then emigrated in 1789 in defiance of laws meant to keep the technology secret. From memory he reproduced the machinery and built a water-powered cotton mill at Pawtucket, Rhode Island, bringing the factory system to America. He is celebrated in the United States as the father of the American factory system, while in Britain he was remembered as 'Slater the Traitor'. His mills, like their British models, relied heavily on the labour of children.
Connections
- associate of Richard Arkwright — Learned and reproduced Arkwright's spinning technology, carrying it to America.
In the timeline
- 1793 Slater builds the first American cotton mill the founder