Samuel Slater and the First American Mills

Britain tried to protect its textile lead by banning the export of machines and restricting the emigration of skilled workers. Samuel Slater, who had been apprenticed to Jedediah Strutt, a former partner of Arkwright, memorized the design of the water frame and sailed to America in 1789. Working with Rhode Island merchants Almy and Brown, backed by Moses Brown, he built a water-powered spinning mill in Pawtucket that began operating in 1790.

Slater's mills employed whole families, including many children, in what became known as the 'Rhode Island system'. In Britain he was nicknamed 'Slater the Traitor', while Americans later called him the father of American manufacturing. His story shows how technology moved across the Atlantic through people's knowledge, and how industrial espionage, then as now, raised questions about who owns ideas.