Slater, << SLAY tuhr, >> Samuel (1768-1835), a British textile worker, founded the textile industry in the United States. Slater was born on June 9, 1768, in Derbyshire. He came to the United States in 1789, after working for six years as an apprentice and manager in an English textile mill. At the mill, he learned the workings of the spinning machine developed by the British inventor Richard Arkwright. Slater left England in disguise because the British government prohibited any person who had knowledge of the design and operation of spinning machines from leaving the country. With this policy, Britain sought to maintain its world leadership in the production of textiles.
In 1790, Slater agreed to build the Arkwright machine from memory for Almy & Brown, a Rhode Island textile firm that wanted to use mechanical spinning techniques. Slater soon formed a partnership with Almy & Brown. The firm established the first successful spinning mill in the United States at Pawtucket, R.I., in 1790. Slater supervised the mill and hired children aged 7 to 14 to operate the equipment. In 1798, Slater established his own firm, Samuel Slater and Company, at Rehoboth, Mass. By the time of his death on April 21, 1835, Slater operated a number of mills in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island.
