SAMUEL SLATER,

THE FATHER OF THE AMERICAN COTTON MANUFACTURES.

Birth.-Is apprenticed to the partner of Arkwright in the business of cotton spinning. Fondness for experiments in machinery.-Improves the "heart motion."-Industry.-Appointed overseer.-Anecdote.-Forms the idea of coming to America.-Is obliged to leave secretly.-Adventures in London.Sails for the United States.-Obtains a temporary employment.-Dispiriting results of the attempts to establish the cotton manufacture previous to his arrival.-Applies to Moses Brown.-Visits Pawtucket.-Enters into the cotton business with Messrs. Almy and Brown.-Low state of manufactures.-Disappointment.-Agrees to erect the Arkwright patents.-Affecting anecdote.Forms a tender attachment.-Builds the "Old Mill" at Pawtucket.-Prejudice.-Prosperity.-Extension of the cotton_manufacture.-Establishes the first American Sunday school.-Character.-Conclusion of his domestic history.-Death.-Tribute to his memory.

WE, of the present day, in witnessing the extent and variety of our manufactures, can scarcely realize the low state in which they were, some forty or fifty years since: nor, without investigation, can we form any conception of the difficulties incident to their establishment. In none were they so formidable as in the cotton manufacture: and it is judged that he, who forsook the endearments of home for a land of strangers, to seek its establishment among us, certainly claims a place amid the other characters that comprise this volume.

The subject of this memoir* was born at Belper, in Derbyshire, England, June 9, 1768. His father was one of those independent yeomanry who farm their own lands, forming a distinct class from the tenantry. Young Slater received the advantages of an ordinary English education; and while at school, manifested a general fondness for study, but more particularly for that of arithmetic, one by far the most important in disciplining the mind for the business of life-a talent almost universal with those who become distinguished for mechanical ingenuity.

The cotton spinning business, at this time in its infancy, was carried on in the neighborhood by Jedediah Strutt, the partner of

* See White's "Memoir of Slater; connected with a History of the Rise and Progress of the Cotton Manufacture in England and America: with Remarks on the Moral Influence of Manufactories in the United States ;"-a work containing a great deal of valuable and interesting information.

the celebrated Arkwright. Mr. Slater having frequent intercourse with Mr. Strutt, made an agreement with him to take his son into his employment. In August of the same year, young Slater lost his father; and thus, at the early age of fourteen, was left his own master. A short time subsequent to this event, his employer asked him if he intended to continue in the business. Previous to giving a decisive answer, he inquired his opinion of its perma nency. The reply was, that it would not probably continue as good as then, but, under proper management, would doubtless always be a fair business. So little did even its founders foresee the vast extension to which it was designed, and the astonishing change in politics, commerce, and the relations of states to each other, which have been the consequence. Indeed, all the cotton manufacture of England was then confined to a small district in Derbyshire, and its whole amount not greater than that done at the present day in a single village in New England.

Young Slater early manifested the bent of his mind, frequently spending his Sundays alone in making experiments in machinery; and for six months was without seeing any of his friends, though living only a mile from home. This was not from a want of filial or fraternal affection, but solely through devotion to his employ. ment. As showing the propensity and expertness of his mind at this period, the following circumstance is related :-His master in vain endeavored to improve the "heart motion" so as to raise or enlarge the yarn in the middle, in order to contain more on the bobbin. Slater seeing through the difficulty, went to work, and the next Sunday (his only spare time) succeeded in that, which his employer, with all his ingenuity, was unable to effect. This general application on Slater's part was not without its benefits; his employers gained so much confidence in his business habits and industry, that during the last four or five years of his stay with them he was engaged as an overseer. This general oversight, with his close habits of observation, eventually proved of incalcu lable service.

Slater was fortunate in having for his employer a man of so much stability and integrity, who took a great deal of pains to properly mould his character and habits. He was, like all other business men, a strict economist in that which related to his profession, and would often enforce his maxims on his young protegé. As an illustration, the following anecdote is related :— -When Slater was yet a boy, he passed by some loose cotton on the floor; Mr. Strutt called him back, with a request to pick it up, for it was by attending to such small things that great fortunes were accumulated; at the same time observing to his wife, by way of impress.

ing it more strongly on the mind of his favorite apprentice, that he "was afraid that Samuel would never be rich."

Slater faithfully served his indenture with Mr. Strutt. This accomplishment of his full time was characteristic with him, and was praiseworthy and beneficial, as it laid the foundation of his. adaptation to business, and finally to its perfect knowledge.

He early turned his attention to the United States, as affording a vast field for enterprise in his department. This originated partially from an apprehension that the business would be ruined by competition in his native country, and, with this idea, he would seek every means to gain information. The motives which finally induced him to leave, were the various rumors which reached Derbyshire of the anxiety of the different state govern. ments here to encourage manufactures. Slater was more strongly confirmed in this determination on observing a newspaper account of a liberal bounty granted by the legislature of Pennsylvania to a person who had imperfectly succeeded in constructing a carding machine, to make rolls for jennies; and the knowledge, too, that a society had been authorized by the same legislature for the promotion of manufactures.

Having made due preparation, he secretly, and without divulging his plans to even a single individual, bid farewell to the home of his childhood. What were his feelings in gazing, for the last time, on the countenances of his mother, brothers, and sisters, only those who have been in similar circumstances can imagine; his young heart was full, but a youthful ambition fired his soul, and enabled him to overcome his emotions. While waiting in London until the vessel was ready, he wrote to his friends, informing them of his plans, but, for obvious reasons, did not put the letter into the office until ready to embark.

The ship being ready, Mr. Slater embarked, Sept. 1st, 1789, being at that time only a few months over twenty-one years of age. He was aware of the danger incurred in leaving England as a machinist, and therefore took no drawings of any sort, trusting solely to the powers of his memory to enable him to construct the most complicated of machinery. Indeed, he had no writing with him excepting his indenture, which was his sole introduction to the western world. After a tedious passage of sixty-six days, he arrived in New York. Here he obtained a temporary employment, until something permanent should arise.

Previous to Slater's arrival in America, every attempt to spin cotton warp or twist, or any other yarn, by water power, had totally failed, and every effort to import the patent machinery of England had proved abortive. Much interest had been excited in

Philadelphia, New York, Beverly, Massachusetts, and Providence, but it was found impossible to compete with the superior machinery of Derbyshire.* Distrust and despondoncy had affected the

* At a meeting held in Boston a few years since, on the subject of opening a railroad to Albany, the infant difficulties of our manufactures were thus adverted to by Mr. Hallet:

We talk now of the future, in regard to railways, with doubt, as of an experiment yet to be tested, and many look upon the calculations of the sanguine as mere speculating dreams. Here is a new avenue about to be opened to the development of resources, and yet men hesitate to go forward. Let us test what we can reasonably anticipate in this, by what we know has happened, in the development of resources once deemed quite as visionary, through another medium of industry and enterprise-domestic manufactures. There is not an adult among us who cannot remember the time when it was a source of mortification to be dressed in homespun. Now, our own fabrics are among the best and richest stuffs of every day consumption, and the products of our looms are preferred even in foreign countries. Forty years ago, who would have dared to conjure up the visions of such manufacturing cities as Lowell, and Fall River, your Ware, Waltham, and the hundreds of flourishing villages which now constitute the most prosperous communities in this commonwealth? How small and feeble was the beginning of all this! In 1787, the first cotton mill in this state was got up in Beverly, by John Cabot and others, and in three years it was nearly given up, in consequence of the difficulties which the first beginning of the development of the vast resources of domestic industry, in our state, had to encounter. I hold in my hand," said Mr. Hallet, " a document of uncommon interest, on this subject, found in the files of the Massachusetts senate; which will show the early struggles of domestic manufactures, and the doubts entertained of their success, more forcibly than any fact that can be stated. It is the petition of the proprietors of the little Beverly cotton mill, in 1790, for aid from the legislature to save them from being compelled to abandon the enterprise altogether. This petition was referred to the committee of both houses for the encouragement of arts, agriculture, and manufactures, (of which Nathaniel Gorham was chairman;) and with all the lights which that intelligent committee then had on this subject, destined to become one of the greatest means of developing resources ever opened to national prosperity, they cautiously reported that from the best information we can obtain, we are of opinion that the said manufactory is of great public utility. But owing to the great expenses incurred in providing machines, and other incidents usually attending a new business, the said manufactory is upon the decline, and unless some public assistance can be afforded, is in danger of failing. Your committee therefore report, as their opinion, that the petitioners have a grant of one thousand pounds, to be raised in a lottery:' on condition that they give bonds that the money be actually ap propriated in such a way as will most effectually promote the manufacturing' of cotton piece goods in this commonwealth.. . Where now is the little

Beverly cotton mill? And what has been the mighty development of resources in domestic industry in forty-five years, since the date of that petition, when the wisest men among us had got no farther than to a belief that the said manufactory was of great public utility! Is there any vision of the great public utility of railways," said Mr. Hallet, "which can go beyond what now is, and what will be in forty years, that can exceed in contrast what we know once was and now is, in the development of resources by the investment of capital and industry in domestic manufactures? The petitioners for the little Beverly cotton mill were doubtless deemed to be absurdly extravagant, when they hinted that the manufacture of cottons would one day not only afford a supply for domestic consumption, but a staple for exportation. But what do we now see? Our domestic fabrics find a market in every clime, and vessels, lying at your wharves, are receiving these goods to export to Calcutta.

"The world is beginning to understand the true uses of wealth, to develop