Reinvent Rhode Island: The Industrial Revolution started in Rhode Island

3.23.2012: The history of the Industrial Revolution in America can be traced back to Samuel Slater, who immigrated to the United States in 1789 from England. Once in America, he was told about the Quaker merchant Moses Brown, from Rhode Island, who was looking for a way to develop industry in this young country, so that America could be more independent from European manufactures of the goods this country needed and put large parts of the population to work. So Slater and Brown built the first water-powered cotton spinning mill in Pawtucket  in 1790. From those beginnings, the Industrial Revolution helped the country evolve socially and technologically, which continued through the early 1900s. Rhode Island and many other states in New England suffered setbacks in manufacturing after 1900. Companies moved to the south for cheaper wages and less regulation. Manufacturing in Rhode Island would dwindle throughout the decades, with not many taking notice until it was to late.
 While some manufacturing businesses in the state have changed strategies to adapt to a new world, others have had to close their doors. Providence Journal video by Steve Szydlowski