Samuel Slater was born in England on June 9, 1768. He was an apprentice at a cotton mill and eventually became a superintendent, so he knew the machines very well. He dreamed of making a fortune in the United States in the textile industry, but there was a problem. The British would not let designs leave the country, so he memorized as much as he could and left for the U.S.
In 1790, he partnered with Moses Brown in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, to replicate British designs. In 1793, they opened their first factory. Now that he had machines, he had to find workers, so he set up a system like what he learned in England.
This system he set up was basically like a small town. He brought in families and they would live in company-owned housing. He would train the young children as apprentices, closely supervising them, and they would grow up to become skilled mechanics. There was company-owned stores, and even a sunday school that the college students would teach the kids how to read and write. His system became know as the Rhode Island System and was later copied and improved upon by innovators.
By 1810, he owned three factories in Massachusetts and Rhode island. Then he built factories to build machines that would be used in his textile factories. He died in 1835 a wealthy man, and is now known as The Father of the American Industrial Revolution.
I think he is the most important person of the American Industrial Revolution, because he was the first to create a successful textile factory, he created a system that other people copied and improved upon, and basically he just got the ball rolling for factories.
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