Slater Mill

Slater Mill on the Blackstone River in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, marked the start of large-scale mechanized cotton spinning in America when Samuel Slater and Moses Brown completed a water-powered mill there in 1793 using the Arkwright system. Its operation helped shape early U.S. industrial development and spread the Rhode Island System of family and child labor through the Blackstone Valley. The site was also an early center of labor unrest, where young women workers led what is described as the nation’s first factory strike in 1824. Preserved after years of industrial use and fire damage, it now operates as a museum within Blackstone River Valley National Historical Park.

Pawtucket, Rhode Island · United States