In the late 1700s, England controlled the textile industry. This was largely due to the spinning machines of Samuel Crompton and James Hargreaves, as well as the water-powered machines of Sir Richard Arkwright. American industrialists were eager to dip into this profit pool; English businessmen, however, were not about to share the secrets of their trade. Several American textile companies began to offer rewards and bounties to mill workers who would emigrate from England--bringing their knowledge of textile machinery with them, of course. One of the men lured across the ocean in this way was Samuel Slater.

Slater was born in Derbyshire, England, in 1768. His father, a farmer, died when he was fourteen, at which time he was apprenticed to a neighbor, Jebediah Strutt. Just a few years earlier, Strutt had entered into partnership with Arkwright to construct the first water frame spinning machine. Strutt employed Slater as...