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Born on June 9, 1768, in Derbyshire, England, Samuel Slater got involved in the textile industry at the young age of 14. Slater was apprenticed in a factory that manufactured textile machines. By age 17, Slater had been promoted to supervisor of machinery and construction in the mill. By age 21, he knew all that there was to know about textile manufacturing. Slater secretly (leaving England if you were a skilled worker was strictly forbidden) immigrated to the United States in seek of wealth (1789), as he thought Europe had reached its peak of industrialization. Others had gone to the United States before him, but Slater was the first with the knowledge and experience of how to build, as well as operate, textile machinery.
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