First cotton mill in the US opened by Samuel Slater at Pawtucket, R.I

Historical Context Note

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.2: American (US) Writing and Culture: The Nineteenth Century, 1783-1900.
Vol. editors: J. Michael Duvall (College of Charleston), Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Tony Papanikolas (San Jose State University)

Domains

Manufacturing

Dates

Date of occurrence 1790-12-21

Places

United States (Location)

Resources

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Samuel Slater (4th May, 1768 - 21st April, 1835) founded the first water-powered cotton mill in Pawtucket, Rhode Island in 1793. He had arrived covertly in the US from England in 1789, having been apprenticed in Jedediah Strutt's cotton mill in Derbyshire. Working for Strutt, a partner of Richard Arkwright, Slater had gained a knowledge of the textile industry that allowed him to become a successful business man, despite British laws forbidding the sharing of such technology. He is viewed as the 'Father of the American Industrial Revolution'.

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