The New Student's Reference Work/Slater, Samuel

Sla′ter, Samuel, an Englishman who introduced the manufacture of cotton into the United States, was born at Belper, Derbyshire, in 1768, and died at Webster, Mass., in 1835. Slater was an apprentice under Strutt, the partner of Arkwright. When he quitted England (1789), he did so secretly for fear that efforts might be made to prevent him from introducing Arkwright's machinery abroad. Relying wholly upon his memory, however, he did so; and in 1790 he succeeded in founding the first American cotton-factory at Pawtucket, Rhode Island. He afterwards built mills at Webster, Mass. The town of Slaterville grew up from the homes of his workmen. In 1816 Slater also built woolen-mills at Webster, Mass. He was a liberal and philanthropic employer and the founder of schools for the children of his workmen.