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".

The original portion of the Slater Mill built in 1793 was six bays long and two stories tall.

[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".