Samuel Slater

Originally Aired: June 1, 1938 Cavalcade of America #137, "Samuel Slater," follows the journey of a young English textile worker who risks everything to bring industrial knowledge to America. In 1789, twenty-one-year-old Samuel Slater works as foreman in the Arkwright and Strutt cotton mill in Derbyshire, England, where he secretly memorizes the design of spinning machinery. Despite British laws that forbid skilled mechanics from leaving the country or exporting industrial plans, Slater quietly completes his apprenticeship and slips away to London, telling no one of his intentions, not even his mother. At the London docks, British customs officials search Slater's belongings, looking for smuggled machinery plans or drawings. The young man passes inspection with only the clothes on his back and the plans locked in his memory. After sixty-six days at sea, Slater arrives in New York seeking to establish America's textile industry, but faces an uncertain future. His letters to Pennsylvania go unanswered despite their posted bounty for carding machine inventors, leaving him discouraged and struggling to find anyone who will give him the chance to demonstrate his valuable knowledge.