The Early Life of Samuel Slater
Derbyshire and the Father of the Industrial Revolution in America
How Samuel Slater, the father of the industrial revolution in America, got his knowledge of cotton spinning and cotton mills from Jedediah Strutt, in Belper, Derbyshire.
Samuel Slater, the father of the American Industrial Revolution, was born in Belper, a small town in Derbyshire, England, in 1768. He was the son of a farmer.
In 1776 Richard Arkwright and Jedediah Strutt opened the world's first cotton mill, at Cromford, a few miles further up the Derwent Valley from Slater's birthplace.
The mill was built to house an invention by Arkwright, the spinning mule, a machine which enabled cotton to be spun far faster than previously.
Soon Strutt and the argumentative Arkwright parted ways, and Strutt had developed mill complexes at Belper and Milford, further down the valley.
Samuel's father had business dealings with Strutt, who was, for his time, a very enlightened employer.
Jedediah Strutt was a Unitarian, and so had a typical non-conformist attitude to his workforce. Strutt was very concerned that the Mill workers had a good diet, and set up several farms around the Mills which can still be seen today. He was keen to purchase fresh produce for his workers. Strutt also set up schools, two of which are still operating as schools, and so his workers were better educated than just about any other group of workers at the time.
In 1782, Slater became apprenticed to Strutt, and learned far more about the technical side of cotton spinning under Strutt than he would have done under any other cottonmaster. By the end of his apprenticeship, he had acquired extremely marketable skills.
These skills were especially sought after in the fledgeling United States, desperate to develop an industrial base of its own.
The British government was equally keen to stop them.
In November 1789 Slater left for New York, disguised as a farmer, with his indenture papers (proving he had completed his apprenticeship) sewn into his coat's lining.
Although he carried no technical drawings, he had, over the seven years of his apprenticeship, memorised the design of all the machines in the Mill, and so carried secrets worth more than gold, safe within his head.
Once in America, he settled in Pawtucket, and set to work, building his own mills, and passing on his knowledge to others. By the time he died, in 1835, left a fortune of over one million dollars, owned thirteen cotton mills, and there were over eighty cotton mills in the United States.
This has left an enduring question in the life of Slater, because Strutt was a Unitarian, and several prominent Unitarians of the time supported the Americans. Did Strutt connive with Slater's escape from England?
Certainly he carried on a correspondence with Slater for many years after Slater's settlement in the US, in 1795 even commenting favourably on a sample of cotton produced in Slater's mill.
This was hardly the behaviour expected of a patriotic Derbyshire cottonmaster, or an aggrieved employer with an absconding employee who had set himself up in direct competition.
Slater's life in America is well documented, but how he got there, from Derbyshire, and how much help he received is still a mystery.
Today the Derwent Valley is a U.N. designated World Heritage Site, and the towns of Belper and Pawtucket are twinned.
Sources:
Samuel Slater - Hero or Traitor - Maypole Promotions(Milford) Derbyshire
A Textile Community in the Industrial Revolution - E G Power
Manuscripts relating to Belper - Derbyshire Local Studies Library, Derby.
Belper Unitarian Chapel - Belper, Derbyshire
