The mill's founder, Samuel Slater, apprenticed as a young man with industrialist Jedediah Strutt in Belper, England.

Shortly after emigrating to the United States, Slater was hired by Moses Brown of Providence, Rhode Island to produce a working set of machines necessary to spin cotton yarn using water power.

Slater initially hired children and families to work in his mill, establishing a pattern that was replicated throughout the Blackstone Valley and known as the "Rhode Island System".

This included the first factory strike in the United States, which was led in 1824 by young women workers.

[5] The Slater Mill site now serves as a museum, educational center, and music venue, which "celebrates innovation and the entrepreneurial spirit by engaging audiences in relevant cultural, historic, and artistic endeavors".