SLATER MILLSPawtucket, Rhode Island

Renee Ferland

HISTORY

Samuel Slater 1768 – 1835 Wanted to bring British textile to America, although this was

against the law. Posed as a farmed and came to America with nothing but

his papers sewn into his jacket. Was employed by company Almy and Brown on the terms

he could recreate British water frames and sewing and spinning machinery from memory.

In 1793 created Samuel Slater and Company in partnership with father-in-law Oziel Wilkinson.

LIFE OF FACTORY WORKERS Men who worked in Wilkinson factory averaged $2.00 a day. Women averaged $.75 a day and children $.35 a day. Each home had its own garden to grow food and herbal remedies. Made their own clothes from wool from sheep or in summer from flax turned

into thread. The Weasel was the last step in creating flax thread. It was the first

standardized measurement, it would wind thread until it made a pop sound which meant the thread had reached a scein in length.

Pictures below depict the process of turning flax into thread.

Dried flax. The process to make retted flax which had the outer shell broken off.

Hackles, clean off outer shell

Spinning flax fibers into string.

Weasel

WILKINSON MILL Manufactured machine parts and tools for Slater Mill. Only employed males on first floor where machinery was. Women

worked on second and third floors. Was powered by Water wheel. A system of belts hanging from the ceiling powered the machines.

Water wheel and first floor machine shop.

SLATER MILL Employed whole families. Slater was a manager who believed in the welfare of his workers. Half days Saturdays. Preacher came to the mill on Sundays. Tutor came to teach children on Sundays, Slater believed in an educated

workforce. The Slater mill focused on turning cotton shipped from the south into

thread. Many children worked the machines and died, but they were ‘replaceable’. Slater’s brother in law Smith Wilkinson, 12 years old, was the foreman of

the Slater mill.

Cotton Gin to de-seed cotton.

500 lb bale of cotton.

Breaker Card Machine, wire bristles that combed through clean cotton to soften and prepare it.

Lap Machine, thinned out cotton and rolled into a lap to prepare to turn into thread.

SLATER MILL CONTD. Many workers developed white lung from breathing in all of the cotton fibers. No windows were ever opened due to a breeze.

From the lap machine the fleece went to the roving machine which began to twist the fibers to turn them into string.

From the roving machine the thread went to the bobbin winding-wheel which was operated manually until the bobbin was wound with thread.

Roving Machine

Bobbin Winding-wheel

SLATER MILL CONTD. Final process in creating the thread ready to be sold was the spinning frame

and reel. The spinning frame had 24 spindles and 12 spindles on each side and would wind yarn onto bobbins after being reduced in size.

The reel had a multitude of slats on both sides and would wind the yarn onto skeins which were then ready to be sold.

The reel only had enough room for children to fit under to fix, so when a string would break a child would have to run and tie it, however they only had 30 seconds because the machine was moving. To reduce death, the Parents of the children were in charge of the machine. This morbid management practice actually reduced the death rate on the machine by 80%!

SLATER VS. LOWELL MILLS

Both mills ran on water power. Lowell employed farm women, where Slater employed whole

families. Slater mills women spun raw cotton into yarn. Lowell mills not only spun raw cotton into yarn but also wove it

into cloth. ‘Mill girls’lived in boarding houses and were expected to live by a

strict moral code. Slater’s Rhode Island system, employed whole families which

created towns, where families lived in company owned housing. The Waltham system had mill girls working 80 hours per week, six

days a week. Women would arrive to work at 5 am and leave at 7 pm.

THE END