May 24, 2025 • 14 mins
A historical series that narrates the significant events and figures that shaped the nation's past, offering educational and engaging stories. The episodes highlight the spirit of exploration and perseverance.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
American Trail.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Oh, the American Trail placed in Blood Defended in Blood,
(00:30):
Chapter five, Samuel Slater's Machine. In the year seventeen eighty nine,
a young man set sail from England.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
For New York.
Speaker 4 (00:48):
His name was Samuel Slater. I met him soon after
he came to this country. I tried to picture him
during the sixty six long days it took him to
cross the ocean, standing there on the deck of the sailings, wretched, lonely,
terribly homesick for his natives England.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
He never got over that ceiling. Yet he never went there.
Speaker 4 (01:13):
In those days, Alexander Hamilton had said we should encourage
the importation of new adventures from abroad. One of the
men who agreed with him was a Rhode Island businessman
named Moses Brown. Soon after Samuel arrived in this country,
he went to Providence.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
To see mister Brown.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
So tell me, Slater, these Arkwright cotton mills in England,
they must be something. H Yes, they are, sir, quite something.
You worked for these fellows, Strutton Arkwright, for some time.
You know, we're offering a reward to anyone who can
duplicate these English machines. Yes, the reward induced me to
come over here, my boy, We'll see you get all
the cooperation you need. You claim you can actually build
(01:52):
one of these machines with no trouble, sir, Oh.
Speaker 5 (01:57):
You have the plans design?
Speaker 3 (02:00):
Oh no, no, you can't take plans or patterns out
of England. Then how in places I've memorized, everything memorized?
And just how will you go about building a cotton
mill in this country? Well, first of all, I'll have
to find some good iron workers and carpenters, then teach
them how machine parts are made.
Speaker 4 (02:28):
Samuel's confidence impressed Moses Brown. He brought Samuel to pot
Tucket to start work on the cotton mill. That was
when I met him. My father and machinist agreed to
work with him. And one Sunday Samuel came to tea.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Do you take sugar in your tea?
Speaker 3 (02:45):
Mister Slaty very little? Oh that's plenty, thank you.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
You must be lonely over here.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
Well, it's an experience, and let's put it that way.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
How do you find people here?
Speaker 5 (03:01):
I really haven't had time to get to know them.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
You don't find them friendly, do you?
Speaker 4 (03:07):
Well?
Speaker 3 (03:07):
I suppose they have to get to know me too.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
You'll find her all very nice.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
At the moment. They seem to resent me when I
passed them on the street. There's something in their faces hostility.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
Hostility.
Speaker 4 (03:25):
Oh, I'm sure it's test your imagination. But Samuel was right.
Only a few days later, on the edge of town,
in a small meadow where the cotton mill was being built.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
You, mister, Yes, my name's Manley, Timothy Manley. Well, what's
going on here? It's no secret we're building machinery of
cotton mill.
Speaker 5 (03:51):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
I make spinning wheels and I repair them.
Speaker 5 (03:54):
It's hard enough for a man and his wife.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
To make a living without seeing a machine built. Settle
to a man's work and take his job away. I'm
warning you if you hang around here, we'll smash you,
and we'll smash your machine.
Speaker 4 (04:08):
But the warning was ignored. Samuel worked harder than ever.
He told me about the incident. One Saturday afternoon, we
were walking along one of the little cobblestone streets, past
the blacksmith shop that I remember so well.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
I've seen this sort of thing before in England, sort
of thing fear of the cotton mill. I saw mob
actually destroy one.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
You think it could happen here. It could. What a
dreadful thought.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
Look at the way people stare at me. If you
weren't with me, they'd probably stone men. That sounds like England,
and the cottage on the corner, the fat ruth, the
little garden of the water pumping the square. It's all
so much like a little bit of England.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
Oh, here's the still hanging around here, mister Slater.
Speaker 4 (05:03):
We'll discuss it another time, mister manly. Suddenly the cotton
mill was finished. All that remained to do was test
the machinery. Moses Brown, my father, a lot of other
people came to see the machine actually work. I stood
(05:24):
with them, a little frightened.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
Sam blessed me. But this machinery yours is a queer
looking monster. Ah, she's beautiful, and we're supposed to believe
it will work. It will at mess of wire, metal
and wood, will spin cotton. Yes, sir, show me, I
believe this when I see it.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
We were all very very nervous.
Speaker 4 (05:47):
As Samuel walked away from us, I watched him pull
back some levers.
Speaker 5 (05:58):
By Glory Bay.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
It's working, Sam, Sam, You've done a boy.
Speaker 5 (06:05):
We've We've got a cotton man what's that? What was that?
Speaker 4 (06:11):
Someone had thrown a stone through a window outside the
mill and marbled angry?
Speaker 1 (06:15):
Men and women were gathered.
Speaker 5 (06:16):
All right, Rader, you had your water.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
I wouldn't come any closer. Manley, I told you what
we do. Now we're going to do it. Get back, Manly.
You try anything, we'll put you in jail. You won't
live to see that. Mister Brown, destry anything, and we'll
build it again and get.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
Soldiers to guard it.
Speaker 5 (06:32):
Well, we're not scared, So listen to me, all of you.
We didn't come here to talk.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
Talk let him talk.
Speaker 5 (06:40):
Now listen.
Speaker 6 (06:42):
The machine will give everybody a job. I'll have to
teach you how to run it. Why, we'll produce more
cotton in one week than you've seen in a lifetime.
Speaker 4 (06:53):
I saw them staring at Samuel. Most of them wanted
to listen. Only a few doubted what he was telling you.
Speaker 6 (07:00):
And we caase so cheaper. The demand for machine made
coffin will increase. That will mean still more tosser. You
can't prove any of this.
Speaker 5 (07:10):
It's been proved in England.
Speaker 6 (07:13):
My machine's just like this one, and in this coffin
is being sold all over the world.
Speaker 5 (07:19):
All right, all right, Slada, we'll give you a chance.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
The mills started working.
Speaker 4 (07:32):
People from all over the country came to see this
wonder of the age.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
Samuel and I were married, and as time went on.
Speaker 4 (07:41):
We were blessed with the baby's son, and it seemed
to us that nothing would ever spoil our happiness.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
And then, Sam, Sam, we're in trouble. If you worry
too much about trouble, Moses, I'm serious, Sam, something we
hadn't counted on.
Speaker 5 (08:00):
American people prefer foreign goods. They won't buy our cotton.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
That doesn't make common sense. Oh that's how things are.
Then we'll fight this foreign competition. How how we'll produce
more cotton, lower prices, flood them off.
Speaker 5 (08:15):
We'll be ruined if we do that, we'll be ruined
if we don't.
Speaker 4 (08:22):
They manufactured more cotton than thing possible. Samuel call it
mass production. He worked day and night finding ways to
improve his machine. I seldom saying. Then one cold winter night,
(08:43):
we lost our little son. He died of pneumonia. In
the dreadful days it followed, I began to know my
husband better than i'd ever known him before.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
Our little boy is not really gone. The love he
had for us, the love we had for him. It's
all about us. It's as though he were just in
the next room, out of sight, but still here. I know.
(09:16):
Lately I've been thinking about the children of this town.
Someday I'd like to do something for them in memory
of our boy. Do something, Hannah, do you know what
a Sunday school is? No, we must build one, a
(09:37):
place where the children of the town can be taught
an understanding of God, where they can have religious training.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
I don't think there is such a place in the country.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
There will be, Hannah.
Speaker 4 (09:56):
Samuel build his Sunday school, the first one this count
he had ever seen.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
Now he was part of the town.
Speaker 4 (10:04):
Bitterness against him a turn to respect and fondness.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
The people in this part of the country.
Speaker 4 (10:10):
Liked his hard headedness and his straightforward belief in decency.
Sometimes I think the working people understood Samuel better than
our close friends did. Tim Manly did.
Speaker 5 (10:23):
Miss Brown run. I was looking for mister Slater, come
back another time. You don't like me. No, I've got
a good memory. I wouldn't have given you a job
the way Sam Slater did. Oh maybe not, but oh, oh, hello,
missus Slater. Good morning.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Hello Sam, I'd like a word with you, missus Slayter. Yes,
go ahead, I'm quitting my job, quitting me and a
few more. We're all leaving you, all right, I've got
something else to say.
Speaker 5 (10:51):
I'm listening. We know as much about your machine as
you do, you.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
Shud We all do. And Sam Slater tatcha. He taught
the whole bunch of you. He taught us that don't
mean we're tied to them. Somebody taught me I didn't
stay tied to them.
Speaker 5 (11:04):
That's the way it is with us. What are you
driving at Manley? Millions?
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Some others were going off to build a cotton all
of our own?
Speaker 5 (11:10):
What Sam? You heard what he said? I heard?
Speaker 2 (11:13):
All right, mister Slater. What are you going to do
about it?
Speaker 1 (11:16):
Do?
Speaker 5 (11:17):
I'll tell you what we're going to do Manley. We'll
slap you in jail.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
I'd like to see.
Speaker 5 (11:22):
Don't you stand there grinning at me? You common fee?
I no see you're worse than Why Why you won't
you raise your hand to me? I'll break your head
with this cane. May I say something?
Speaker 3 (11:32):
Now?
Speaker 5 (11:33):
Say what you'll like. It won't make no difference.
Speaker 3 (11:36):
Get out, Get out and build your cotton mill. You
and your friends build your mill, and I'll help you.
What's that This one mill can't meet the demand. We'll
need all the mills we can get if we want
to put American cotton on the world market.
Speaker 4 (11:57):
So they broke from Samuel little group of New England men.
Soon others had the same idea, and from all parts
of the country.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
We heard of more and more meals being constructed.
Speaker 4 (12:11):
That's the end of Samuel's story, except it.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
One evening, Samuel, what is it? Has?
Speaker 4 (12:21):
Something happened?
Speaker 3 (12:24):
War was being declared. War with England.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
Oh, Samuel.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
Whatever I contributed when I came here, I found opportunities.
Whatever I gave, much more has been given to me.
I love the memory of the country I came from,
and I always will. But I've made my home here,
(13:00):
and this.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
Is my country.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
But the War of eighteen twelve grew to an end,
and the United States again looked into the future, this
time into an era that saw the rise of American
industry as it spread from New England all across the country.
The story of Samuel Slater, the father of American manufacturing,
(13:37):
is an American story. Whatever he gave this country gave
much more in return, and no man knew that better
than Samuel Slater. This has been the fifth chapter in
(14:04):
the Story of the American Nation, brought to you by
the Ladies Auxiliary to the Veterans of Foreign Wars. Next week,
another story to make you proud of this great country
of ours, as we follow
Speaker 5 (14:24):
The American trail.
American Trail.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Oh, the American Trail placed in Blood Defended in Blood,
(00:30):
Chapter five, Samuel Slater's Machine. In the year seventeen eighty nine,
a young man set sail from England.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
For New York.
Speaker 4 (00:48):
His name was Samuel Slater. I met him soon after
he came to this country. I tried to picture him
during the sixty six long days it took him to
cross the ocean, standing there on the deck of the sailings, wretched, lonely,
terribly homesick for his natives England.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
He never got over that ceiling. Yet he never went there.
Speaker 4 (01:13):
In those days, Alexander Hamilton had said we should encourage
the importation of new adventures from abroad. One of the
men who agreed with him was a Rhode Island businessman
named Moses Brown. Soon after Samuel arrived in this country,
he went to Providence.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
To see mister Brown.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
So tell me, Slater, these Arkwright cotton mills in England,
they must be something. H Yes, they are, sir, quite something.
You worked for these fellows, Strutton Arkwright, for some time.
You know, we're offering a reward to anyone who can
duplicate these English machines. Yes, the reward induced me to
come over here, my boy, We'll see you get all
the cooperation you need. You claim you can actually build
(01:52):
one of these machines with no trouble, sir, Oh.
Speaker 5 (01:57):
You have the plans design?
Speaker 3 (02:00):
Oh no, no, you can't take plans or patterns out
of England. Then how in places I've memorized, everything memorized?
And just how will you go about building a cotton
mill in this country? Well, first of all, I'll have
to find some good iron workers and carpenters, then teach
them how machine parts are made.
Speaker 4 (02:28):
Samuel's confidence impressed Moses Brown. He brought Samuel to pot
Tucket to start work on the cotton mill. That was
when I met him. My father and machinist agreed to
work with him. And one Sunday Samuel came to tea.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Do you take sugar in your tea?
Speaker 3 (02:45):
Mister Slaty very little? Oh that's plenty, thank you.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
You must be lonely over here.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
Well, it's an experience, and let's put it that way.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
How do you find people here?
Speaker 5 (03:01):
I really haven't had time to get to know them.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
You don't find them friendly, do you?
Speaker 4 (03:07):
Well?
Speaker 3 (03:07):
I suppose they have to get to know me too.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
You'll find her all very nice.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
At the moment. They seem to resent me when I
passed them on the street. There's something in their faces hostility.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
Hostility.
Speaker 4 (03:25):
Oh, I'm sure it's test your imagination. But Samuel was right.
Only a few days later, on the edge of town,
in a small meadow where the cotton mill was being built.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
You, mister, Yes, my name's Manley, Timothy Manley. Well, what's
going on here? It's no secret we're building machinery of
cotton mill.
Speaker 5 (03:51):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
I make spinning wheels and I repair them.
Speaker 5 (03:54):
It's hard enough for a man and his wife.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
To make a living without seeing a machine built. Settle
to a man's work and take his job away. I'm
warning you if you hang around here, we'll smash you,
and we'll smash your machine.
Speaker 4 (04:08):
But the warning was ignored. Samuel worked harder than ever.
He told me about the incident. One Saturday afternoon, we
were walking along one of the little cobblestone streets, past
the blacksmith shop that I remember so well.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
I've seen this sort of thing before in England, sort
of thing fear of the cotton mill. I saw mob
actually destroy one.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
You think it could happen here. It could. What a
dreadful thought.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
Look at the way people stare at me. If you
weren't with me, they'd probably stone men. That sounds like England,
and the cottage on the corner, the fat ruth, the
little garden of the water pumping the square. It's all
so much like a little bit of England.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
Oh, here's the still hanging around here, mister Slater.
Speaker 4 (05:03):
We'll discuss it another time, mister manly. Suddenly the cotton
mill was finished. All that remained to do was test
the machinery. Moses Brown, my father, a lot of other
people came to see the machine actually work. I stood
(05:24):
with them, a little frightened.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
Sam blessed me. But this machinery yours is a queer
looking monster. Ah, she's beautiful, and we're supposed to believe
it will work. It will at mess of wire, metal
and wood, will spin cotton. Yes, sir, show me, I
believe this when I see it.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
We were all very very nervous.
Speaker 4 (05:47):
As Samuel walked away from us, I watched him pull
back some levers.
Speaker 5 (05:58):
By Glory Bay.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
It's working, Sam, Sam, You've done a boy.
Speaker 5 (06:05):
We've We've got a cotton man what's that? What was that?
Speaker 4 (06:11):
Someone had thrown a stone through a window outside the
mill and marbled angry?
Speaker 1 (06:15):
Men and women were gathered.
Speaker 5 (06:16):
All right, Rader, you had your water.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
I wouldn't come any closer. Manley, I told you what
we do. Now we're going to do it. Get back, Manly.
You try anything, we'll put you in jail. You won't
live to see that. Mister Brown, destry anything, and we'll
build it again and get.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
Soldiers to guard it.
Speaker 5 (06:32):
Well, we're not scared, So listen to me, all of you.
We didn't come here to talk.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
Talk let him talk.
Speaker 5 (06:40):
Now listen.
Speaker 6 (06:42):
The machine will give everybody a job. I'll have to
teach you how to run it. Why, we'll produce more
cotton in one week than you've seen in a lifetime.
Speaker 4 (06:53):
I saw them staring at Samuel. Most of them wanted
to listen. Only a few doubted what he was telling you.
Speaker 6 (07:00):
And we caase so cheaper. The demand for machine made
coffin will increase. That will mean still more tosser. You
can't prove any of this.
Speaker 5 (07:10):
It's been proved in England.
Speaker 6 (07:13):
My machine's just like this one, and in this coffin
is being sold all over the world.
Speaker 5 (07:19):
All right, all right, Slada, we'll give you a chance.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
The mills started working.
Speaker 4 (07:32):
People from all over the country came to see this
wonder of the age.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
Samuel and I were married, and as time went on.
Speaker 4 (07:41):
We were blessed with the baby's son, and it seemed
to us that nothing would ever spoil our happiness.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
And then, Sam, Sam, we're in trouble. If you worry
too much about trouble, Moses, I'm serious, Sam, something we
hadn't counted on.
Speaker 5 (08:00):
American people prefer foreign goods. They won't buy our cotton.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
That doesn't make common sense. Oh that's how things are.
Then we'll fight this foreign competition. How how we'll produce
more cotton, lower prices, flood them off.
Speaker 5 (08:15):
We'll be ruined if we do that, we'll be ruined
if we don't.
Speaker 4 (08:22):
They manufactured more cotton than thing possible. Samuel call it
mass production. He worked day and night finding ways to
improve his machine. I seldom saying. Then one cold winter night,
(08:43):
we lost our little son. He died of pneumonia. In
the dreadful days it followed, I began to know my
husband better than i'd ever known him before.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
Our little boy is not really gone. The love he
had for us, the love we had for him. It's
all about us. It's as though he were just in
the next room, out of sight, but still here. I know.
(09:16):
Lately I've been thinking about the children of this town.
Someday I'd like to do something for them in memory
of our boy. Do something, Hannah, do you know what
a Sunday school is? No, we must build one, a
(09:37):
place where the children of the town can be taught
an understanding of God, where they can have religious training.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
I don't think there is such a place in the country.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
There will be, Hannah.
Speaker 4 (09:56):
Samuel build his Sunday school, the first one this count
he had ever seen.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
Now he was part of the town.
Speaker 4 (10:04):
Bitterness against him a turn to respect and fondness.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
The people in this part of the country.
Speaker 4 (10:10):
Liked his hard headedness and his straightforward belief in decency.
Sometimes I think the working people understood Samuel better than
our close friends did. Tim Manly did.
Speaker 5 (10:23):
Miss Brown run. I was looking for mister Slater, come
back another time. You don't like me. No, I've got
a good memory. I wouldn't have given you a job
the way Sam Slater did. Oh maybe not, but oh, oh, hello,
missus Slater. Good morning.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Hello Sam, I'd like a word with you, missus Slayter. Yes,
go ahead, I'm quitting my job, quitting me and a
few more. We're all leaving you, all right, I've got
something else to say.
Speaker 5 (10:51):
I'm listening. We know as much about your machine as
you do, you.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
Shud We all do. And Sam Slater tatcha. He taught
the whole bunch of you. He taught us that don't
mean we're tied to them. Somebody taught me I didn't
stay tied to them.
Speaker 5 (11:04):
That's the way it is with us. What are you
driving at Manley? Millions?
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Some others were going off to build a cotton all
of our own?
Speaker 5 (11:10):
What Sam? You heard what he said? I heard?
Speaker 2 (11:13):
All right, mister Slater. What are you going to do
about it?
Speaker 1 (11:16):
Do?
Speaker 5 (11:17):
I'll tell you what we're going to do Manley. We'll
slap you in jail.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
I'd like to see.
Speaker 5 (11:22):
Don't you stand there grinning at me? You common fee?
I no see you're worse than Why Why you won't
you raise your hand to me? I'll break your head
with this cane. May I say something?
Speaker 3 (11:32):
Now?
Speaker 5 (11:33):
Say what you'll like. It won't make no difference.
Speaker 3 (11:36):
Get out, Get out and build your cotton mill. You
and your friends build your mill, and I'll help you.
What's that This one mill can't meet the demand. We'll
need all the mills we can get if we want
to put American cotton on the world market.
Speaker 4 (11:57):
So they broke from Samuel little group of New England men.
Soon others had the same idea, and from all parts
of the country.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
We heard of more and more meals being constructed.
Speaker 4 (12:11):
That's the end of Samuel's story, except it.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
One evening, Samuel, what is it? Has?
Speaker 4 (12:21):
Something happened?
Speaker 3 (12:24):
War was being declared. War with England.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
Oh, Samuel.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
Whatever I contributed when I came here, I found opportunities.
Whatever I gave, much more has been given to me.
I love the memory of the country I came from,
and I always will. But I've made my home here,
(13:00):
and this.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
Is my country.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
But the War of eighteen twelve grew to an end,
and the United States again looked into the future, this
time into an era that saw the rise of American
industry as it spread from New England all across the country.
The story of Samuel Slater, the father of American manufacturing,
(13:37):
is an American story. Whatever he gave this country gave
much more in return, and no man knew that better
than Samuel Slater. This has been the fifth chapter in
(14:04):
the Story of the American Nation, brought to you by
the Ladies Auxiliary to the Veterans of Foreign Wars. Next week,
another story to make you proud of this great country
of ours, as we follow
Speaker 5 (14:24):
The American trail.
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