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Samuel Slater: Applied for a Job, Received a Factory
by Jeanette Cain
America's first successful and true factory was not from one of its native or natural products. The American factory design was from the mind of Eli Whitney, but this factory meant more than a large number of people working together under one roof, it was an attitude of change in manufacturing of goods.
The first manufacturing factories were an enlarged version of a single artisan, since, as more orders were received, the artisan would take in an assistant and train the assistant to do the simplest work. The assistant eventually reached the point of being capable of completing an entire project on his own. Factories employing many men would give workers the tasks in which they were proficient, but the end result was from the handiwork of several men.
In the late eighteenth century a conscious process began within the mindsets on the division of labor. An artisan needed to become aware of the separate steps necessary in developing a project before machinery was created to take care of these different steps. A division of labor from Whitney's "American System of Manufacture" was the beginning step twards this goal.
After the Revolution, factories had attempted to introduce themselves into this new republic. The English factory system, such as, cotton mills, was based on a division of labor. Different steps of carding, roving, spinning, and weaving were given to different men in the same factory. The first man to make primitive spinning wheels and looms to run on power from a water wheel was Arkwright. Arkwright's simplicity for creating a power loom became a mystic phrase during those early days.
In 1787, the first cotton mill in Beverly, Massachusetts was built, but three years later it was dwindling as a result of inadequate machinery. Another reason was the preference of Americans to purchase English imports, rather than setting up shop and making their own. Soon states began offering incentives and rewards to attract the attention of manufacturing factories, but these attempts failed. The British government had banned any new inventions from leaving the shores of England-they wanted to keep their technology to themselves. America began advertising in English newspapers hoping to attract skilled workmen to come to America.
The Pennsylvania Legislature was one of the advertisers whose ad was printed in the Derbyshire paper. A young man was just finishing his apprenticeship and read this advertisement. His name was Samuel Slater. Slater had worked for Arkwright's partner, Jedediah Strutt, and knew how to use and repair every piece of machinery in the factory. After asking Strutt what his future might be if he stayed with the factory, Slater decided to take a risk and leave England.
Slater took no chances with England's law system. He did not tell his mother or brothers of his future plans for leaving England and going to America. Slater received passage at London, and as his ship was about to leave the harbor, he wrote his family explaining his plans. Slater arrived in Philadelphia in 1789, and began to inquire of the republic's true situation in manufacturing. The famous Quaker merchant, Moses Brown, had just finished a mill in Providence and desperately needed a manager.
Slater sent his resume with his entire background, his abilities, and the position for which he was applying. Brown replied immediately, making Slater a handsome offer provided he could work the machinery in Brown's mill. Slater would receive all business profits, minus cost and interest on the machinery. Slater would also be credited with perfecting the first American water mill. In a nutshell, Slater was being given the factory by Brown.
"There is no other record of a man applying for a job by letter and getting the entire plant by return mail." (Wilson, 85)But, who knows? This is America.
Source:
1. Wilson, Mitchell. American Science and Invention: "A Pictorial History." Bonanza Books: NY 1954. pps.84-85
Further Study:
Samuel Slater - Father of the American Industrial Revolution
It was in this mill in Pawtucket, Rhode Island that Samuel Slater began the American Industrial Revolution with the construction of the first successful textile mill in 1793...
Samuel Slater
Samuel Slater is a major figure in American history and has been called both the "Father of American Industry" and the "Founder of the American Industrial Revolution."
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