Results: Samuel Slater - Father of the American Industrial Revolution (Part 3 of 3)

In 1791, Samuel married 15-year-old Hannah Wilkinson who had grown up on a Quaker farm. Two years later she was celebrated as the first American woman to get a patent for making 2-ply cotton sewing thread. This was enabled by the Patent Act of 1790 that allowed women to apply for and receive patents. Some claim the honor belongs to Mary Dixon Kies, who got a patent in 1809, because Hannah's patent was credited to "Mrs Samuel Slater". What do you think? (The photo shows a statue of Hannah next to her invention in the Samuel Slater Museum in Rhode Island.)

Hannah died from complications of childbirth at 38 in 1812, soon after delivering their 10th child. Sam had to raise their surviving 6 young children on his own. Would you be overwhelmed by that prospect?

In 1817, after they signed a pre-nuptial agreement, Samuel married widow Esther Parkison. By then, Sam was very successful and Esther was a property owner. Esther died in 1859. Are you surprised that pre-nup agreements existed as early as 1817?

While some people from his hometown in England called him "Slater the Traitor", feeling that he had betrayed the town where they earned their living at the local mills, the US president honored him as "Father of the American Factory System". Samuel realized his dream of designing the first textile mills in the US, and was known as a paternalistic but fair employer. He started a business with his sons, and ultimately owned tenant farms and 13 spinning mills. He was worth $42 million in today's funds at the time of his death in 1835. Was Slater a traitor for breaking British law and taking the designs of England's textile machines to America?