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Industrial Revolution in New England | |
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Across the open sea from England, a young man named Samuel Slater had arrived in 1789. Slater had worked in the new cotton-spinning factories of England. Though it was against British law to "export" knowledge of the machines, which were making Great Britain the world's wealthiest textile producer, Slater slipped out of the country and established a cotton-spinning mill at Pawtucket RI, based on his knowledge of English machine design. The mill revolutionized the weaving of textiles in the New World, and set the stage for New England's great weaving industry. Throughout the 19th century, as New England's clipper ships and whalers swept through the world's oceans, land-bound New Englanders exploited the region's waterpower resources to run their new mills, and industrial towns sprang to life along New England's rivers. The textile factories grew and grew, and some, like the gigantic Amoskeag Mills in Manchester NH, had many-windowed facades that marched along the riverbank for more than a quarter mile. Next to the factories were new houses for the armies of workers, many of whom were women. Company stores and company-financed civic buildings filled the streets of the new towns, which were founded on the wealth from weaving. From some of the factories it was not textiles but machinery, firearms, shoes, watches, and instrumentsthat marched out the doors on their way to the markets of the world. New England inventors and engineers gained a reputation for ingenuity that survives today, and samples of "Yankee ingenuity" are still proudly displayed. New England's commercial success brought New Englanders wealth and sophistication. Boston, chief city of the region, was proud to call itself the "Athens of America." But times change, and changing times brought changed circumstances to the region in the next century. Next: The 20th Century New England in the 20th Century |
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The mighty Amoskeag
Mills along the Merrimack River in Manchester NH.
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