How did the American textile industry begin?
The textile (cloth or fiber) industry began after British inventor Richard Arkwright (1732–1792) developed a cotton-spinning machine to make thread in 1783, thus making possible the large-scale factory production of fabric. In 1790, English-born businessman Samuel Slater (1768–1835) founded the first thread-spinning mill in America at Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Slater was able to do this because he had worked for more than six years as a textile laborer in an English textile mill and knew how the Arkwright spinning machine worked. Because Britain wanted to protect its booming textile industry, it passed laws to prevent anyone with knowledge of textile machinery from leaving England. Believing that he could set up his own mill and become rich, Slater adopted a disguise and escaped England in 1789. After arriving in Providence, Rhode Island, Slater formed a…
