Blackstone River Valley National Historical Park ⓘ

At first glance, the Blackstone River seems completely ordinary. It is not very long or very wide. But along the banks of the Blackstone, the American Industrial Revolution was born, and the Blackstone became known as America’s “hardest working river.”

The Blackstone was formed about 10,000 years ago during the last Ice Age. A massive glacier slowly made a U-shaped valley with a flat bottom and steep walls. As it melted, the glacier became the first waters of the Blackstone River.

The Blackstone travels about 48 miles from its headwaters in Worcester, MA, to the Pawtucket Falls in Pawtucket, RI. During the Blackstone’s journey it drops 438 feet, about 9 ½ feet every mile. The river’s steady drop made it a great source for waterpower. Dams were built across the river to squeeze that drop into a waterfall at a single point. Water was taken out of the river just above the dams and run into the mills. In the mills, the weight of the water dropping over waterwheels provided the power to run the mills. The dams also created ponds or reservoirs that gave the mills a supply of water all year long.

By the mid-1800s, the Blackstone River and its tributaries were home to over one hundred mills and mill villages , making it one of the busiest industrial areas in the United States. But industrialization caused problems. Pollution flooded the river, especially heavy metals that kept dye from washing out of cloth. These heavy metals sank into the river bottom and are still a source of pollution in the river today. The river also became a dumping ground for trash. By the 1960s, the Blackstone was one of the most polluted rivers in the United States.

However, the local people did not stand by and let their river be a sewer. A grassroots group, later named ZAP!, worked hard to stop further pollution of the river and to remove the garbage that others had dumped. Their work paid off, and the river’s health keeps getting better.

The Blackstone River is now home to more than twenty species of fish and aquatic mammals like beavers and river otters. Snapping turtles and a variety of birds have also returned. Once America’s hardest working river, today the Blackstone is a place of recreation, reflection, and renewal.

Months after the start of George Washington's presidency, a second revolution was just starting along the banks of the Blackstone River. In Providence, RI, a local merchant named Moses Brown was taking steps to invest in American manufacturing. His goal was to manage a mill where water-powered machines could spin cotton fiber into thread. Brown chose a location just north of Providence, and invested in a workspace next to the Pawtucket Falls . With a source of waterpower, a community of tool and machine makers already living there, and the ability for ships to bring in cotton and take out finished textiles, this location seemed ideal for Brown’s experiment. Brown had one big problem. He did not have machines that worked. Through the American Revolution, the English had kept the operations of their cotton machinery a well-guarded secret. That changed with the arrival of a young and innovative Englishman. In December 1789, Brown hired Samuel Slater , a recent immigrant from England. Slater had spent the past seven years working in an English textile mill. He rose from an apprentice to an overseer of machinery and mill construction. Slater determined that Brown’s existing machines would not work. New machines that could card (brush) and spin the cotton would need to be made locally. For several years, Slater worked with local mechanics, like members of the Wilkinson Family , to make new machines. In December 1790, Slater got the machines running. For the first time, workers could produce thread on water powered machines in America. Slater had spent part of his childhood in a factory. Once in Pawtucket, he hired children to sell their time and to work their new machines. These children who worked in the mill were not paid for their production but the hours spent under Slater's supervision. Eventually, entire families would work and live in places called mill villages. Here child workers (between the ages of 8 and 14 years old) earned steady wages, but they lived under the constant control and manipulation of their employers. These changes marked a new age of American Industry.

In 1793 the firm of Almy, Brown and Slater replaced their experimental workshop with a new mill. Known as the Slater Mill, it was the first water powered textile mill in America. The original mill was six windows wide and two and ½ stories tall. It makes up the core of the building that still stands today. During the 1800s, Slater Mill was expanded six times. It remained a textile mill until 1895, but industrial uses of the building continued until 1920. In 1921, Old Slater Mill Association was founded by local business people to restore the mill. After years of work building exhibits and extensive preservation, the mill was restored to its 1835 appearance. In time, it became a tourist destination and one of the few surviving structures from the early age of industrial development in the area. In March, 2021, Old Slater Mill Association donated the building and surrounding property to the American people through the care and stewardship of the National Park Service. Now, we cultivate legacies of education and preservation together. Old Slater Mill is opened seasonally. For more information on how to visit this site, please check out our Places to Go page.

Blackstone River Valley National Historical Park is made up of six unique sites that tell the story of the American Industrial Revolution. You'll want to start your visit to the park at Old Slater Mill National Historic Landmark (67 Roosevelt Avenue, Pawtucket, RI). At this site you can tour the mill, read exhibits that talk about the history of the park, and watch an 8 minute introductory video. You can also grab Junior Ranger books, pamphlets, maps, and get your passport book stamped. From there you can visit any number of the park's other sites spread across the Blackstone Valley. Learn more about all there is to see and do, hours of operation, and other important information below.

Come visit the birthplace of the American Industrial Revolution. Slater Mill, first constructed in 1793, was a water-powered cotton spinning mill financed by the Brown family of Providence. Samuel Slater, an English immigrant, working with local mechanics, successfully replicated English textile machines here in the United States in 1790. Children worked in the mill becoming among the first hourly wage earners in our country. The wooden mill, now named Old Slater Mill, houses a visitor contact station with exhibits. Tours of the mill are also offered by Park Rangers. The site is also home to the Wilkinson Mill and Sylvanus Brown House. At this time, both of these facilities are closed to the public. The grounds surrounding these three historic buildings are open daily from dawn to dusk year round. Interpretive panels spread across the grounds explain the site's history and importance.

Visitor Information Station: Open Fridays and Saturdays (10:00 A.M. - 4:00 P.M.) Guided Tours: Fridays and Saturday (10:30 A.M., 12:30 P.M., 2:30 P.M.) Park Grounds: Open Daily (Dawn - Dusk)

Visitor Information Station: Open Thursdays - Sundays (10:00 A.M. - 4:00 P.M.) Guided Tours: Thursdays - Sundays (10:30 A.M., 12:30 P.M., 2:30 P.M.) Park Grounds: Open Daily (Dawn - Dusk)

Visitor Information Station: Open Fridays and Saturdays Guided Tours: Fridays and Saturdays (10:30 A.M., 12:30 P.M., 2:30 P.M.) Park Grounds: Open Daily (Dawn - Dusk)

Visitor Information Station: Closed Guided Tours: By Appointment Only - See Field Trip / Specialty Tours Page Park Grounds: Open Daily (Dawn - Dusk) For visitor safety, t ours of Old Slater Mill will be modified or canceled if the heat index is above 87 degrees Fahrenheit. A shortened 10 minute Ranger talk will be offered at the normal tour times. Visitors will have a brief period of access to the main part of the mill. For the latest weather information, call 401-725-8638.

If you are looking to book a special group tour of Old Slater Mill or are a teacher or student check out our education page for more information.

Located along the banks of the beautiful Blackstone River, Blackstone River State Park and Ashton Mill Village demonstrate the natural beauty and industrial heritage of the park. At the Blackstone River State Park, visitors can tour the Kelly House Museum of Transportation which tells the story of the evolution of transportation at this site. After visiting the museum, visitors can walk around the grounds, check out the pollinator garden, and read interpretive waysides along the Blackstone Canal and Blackstone River. On select days, visitors can also stop by the recreated historic barn for special Ranger-led programs. Visitors to the park can also walk, bike, or snowshoe (weather permitting) along the Blackstone Bikeway and explore the natural beauty of the Blackstone Valley. Check out the NPS Mobile App for a self-guided walking tour of the site. A short walk across the Bikeway bridge will bring you to Ashton Mill Village. Visitors can see the four-story Ashton Mill which produced textiles at first made of cotton and then later made of fiberglass for over a century. See worker housing and other elements of a classic Rhode Island System Mill Village. (Please Note: None of the structures in Ashton Mill Village are open to the public. Most are private residences. Please be respectful of the privacy of those who live in this community). Park grounds are open daily from dawn to dusk year round. Restrooms and drinking water are currently not available at this site.

This museum is operated by the RI Department of Environmental Management. It is open on a limited, seasonal basis. Visitors will find indoor exhibits on the Transportation Revolution and an orientation video. Kelly House Junior Ranger books and badges as well as other information are available during operating hours.

Park Grounds: Open Dawn to Dusk, daily Captain Wilbur Kelly House Museum of Transportation: Open daily from 9:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M.

If you are still eager to learn more about the Blackstone River Valley, visitors can tour one or more of the three remaining mill villages that comprise our park. At these locations, visitors can acquire a unique stamp for each location and take a self guided tour. Interpretive signage is also available in each of these sites. Occasional Ranger-guided programs are hosted in these sites. Please check the park's calendar for a list of free public programs.

Discover America’s first planned mill village, the blueprint for the other villages in the Blackstone Valley: Slatersville, Rhode Island. The village John Slater created in 1807 is easily walkable and a great example of all the parts of mill village construction. The Slatersville stamp is available at: North Smithfield Public Library 20 Main Street, Slatersville, RI Click here for hours of operation

Whitinsville has several eras of mill housing, each built to support an expansion of the massive Whitin Machine Works. Learn more about the work of Whitinsville’s machinists by reading signs located throughout the downtown area. The Whitinsville stamp is available at: Whitinsville Social Library 17 Church Street, Whitinsville, MA Click here for hours of operation

Hopedale began as a commune and became the home of Draper Corporation, America’s largest loom manufacturer. View some of the finest worker housing in the Blackstone Valley, then walk through the Parklands - the recreation area built by the Drapers for their workers around the Hopedale Mill Pond. The Hopedale stamp is available at: Bancroft Memorial Library 50 Hopedale Street, Hopedale, MA Click here for hours of operation For self-guided walking tours of each of the mill villages, click here .

Moses Brown is one of the most important figures in America’s Industrial Revolution. His wealth and business knowledge were critical to Samuel Slater ’s success. He was a key factor in the beginning of the industrial age. Moses was the youngest of four brothers. His father died when he was still an infant. His uncle Obadiah Brown raised Moses. When Obadiah died in 1762, Moses and his three brothers inherited shares in their uncle’s business. The brothers took part in a wide variety of merchant activities. They became very wealthy as a result of their business. Notoriously, the brothers participated in the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Moses married his cousin Anna, and they had two children survive to adulthood. Anna died just nine years after their marriage leaving Moses with a son and daughter. It was the children’s tutor, Job Scott, who convinced Moses to convert and become a member of the Society of Friends (also known as Quakers).

After retiring from the family business, he began experimenting with textile manufacturing. He partnered with his cousin Smith Brown and future son-in-law William Almy. They purchased land and water rights along the banks of the Pawtucket Falls . All their early attempts at production failed. In 1789, Moses hired an English immigrant named Samuel Slater . One year later, the experimental mill was finally a success. Brown pursued other interests and hobbies for the rest of his life, while always keeping a close eye on his growing textile empire. He also became a vocal abolitionist. He helped found the Providence Society for Abolishing the Slave Trade. He was also known for helping individual slaves and free blacks with financial and legal assistance. Moses lived to the age of 97. He outlived three wives, all three of his children, and three of his four step-children. Moses Brown is arguably one of the most important figures in initiating the American Industrial Revolution.

As historian Seth Rockman states, “Cotton did not grow along the banks of the Blackstone,” but cotton was still important to the Blackstone River Valley. Little cotton was grown in the United States in 1787. As the nation expanded into the fertile region of the Deep South, cotton plantations became more common. There was a huge increase in cotton production in the United States after the War of 1812. This happened along with a textile boom in the Northeastern U.S. By 1850, 1.8 million of the nation’s 3.2 million enslaved people were growing and picking cotton. By 1860, enslaved labor produced over 2 billion pounds of cotton each year.

About 75 percent of the cotton grown in the American South was sold internationally. The British Empire was by far the largest consumer of Southern cotton. Northern industrialists purchased the remaining 25 percent for their textile mills. Textile workers in the north also participated in the cotton economy by producing “negro cloth” or “slave cloth.” This coarse cloth was cheap to make and uncomfortable to wear. Textile manufacturers profited from selling this cheap clothing to plantation owners, who forced enslaved people to wear it as a symbol of their servitude. Rhode Island textile mills made most of this cloth. Some mill owners even bought over-priced cotton in order to secure contracts for selling “slave cloth” to plantations. The textile industry of the Blackstone Valley and the slave economy of the South were woven together in the antebellum United States. Hundreds of textile mills across the region contributed to the demand of slave grown cotton; even turning some into slave cloth. The Blackstone Valley shares some of the blame for one of the United States’ greatest tragedies. The textile system of the Northeastern United States and the institution of slavery in the Americas were inextricably intertwined.

Pawtucket is an Algonquin word for “place of the falls.” The Pawtucket Falls is the last waterfall on the Blackstone River . At the bottom of the falls, the freshwater Blackstone River becomes the brackish Seekonk River. Brackish water is a mix of fresh and saltwater. The tides of Narragansett Bay push salty water up to the bottom of the falls.

For centuries Native Americans crossed the river on the rocks below the falls. This spot allowed them to cross on foot from one side of Narragansett Bay to the other. Several Native American trails met at this crossing. It was also used as a fishing site.

In 1671, Joseph Jenckes, Jr., built an iron forge by the falls. He used the water to power his trip hammer and blast furnace. Soon other iron workers joined him, founding the Village of Pawtucket. Pawtucket grew in the early 1700s, especially after a bridge was built over the Falls in 1713. A dam and power canals were also built. Iron works, grist mills, sawmills, oil mills, and shipyards were some of the early businesses in the area. Some of the people who came to the village were blacksmith Oziel Wilkinson, his son David , and a carpenter named Sylvanus Brown.

In the 1780s, wealthy Providence merchant Moses Brown decided he wanted to build water powered machines to make cotton thread . He rented a shop in Pawtucket to take advantage of the waterpower and the local machine makers. Also, ocean-going ships could sail up the Seekonk River to within a few hundred feet of the Falls. Those ships could bring in raw cotton and take away the finished textiles.

At first Brown’s machine experiments failed, but in 1789 Samuel Slater came to work for him. Slater had worked in water powered cotton mills in England. In 1790, with Slater’s knowledge and the local mechanics’ skills, they built new experimental machines that did work, achieving the first water powered cotton spinning in America. Three years later, they moved the machines to the newly built Slater Mill .

Born on June 9, 1768, Samuel Slater was the fifth son of William and Elizabeth Slater. Slater grew up on a farm in Belper, Derbyshire, England. After attending school, he began work in a water-powered textile mill owned by Jedediah Strutt. Strutt taught Slater how the machines worked. When Slater turned 21 years old, he left England to try to start a new mill in the United States. It was illegal to for him to take his knowledge to the United States, so he secretively disguised himself as a farmer and left England. In Pawtucket, Rhode Island, Moses Brown and his family business, named Almy and Brown, were trying to start a working mill. All their attempts failed. Slater arrived in New York City in 1789, and learned of Brown. Slater came to Pawtucket, and a year later had the first working water-powered textile mill in the United States.

Slater created the “Rhode Island System of Manufacture.” This system, based upon the ones used in England, used the entire family as working parts in the mill. This system is most noted for its child labor. Children, ages 7 to 12 were the first employees in the mill. Viewed as easily manipulated, they and their families became important parts of mill life . Slater built several other mills in the Pawtucket area wanting to expand the business. Eventually with the help of his brother, John Slater , they built Slatersville . This community was America’s first planned industrial community. Slater continued building and financing mill villages all across southern New England until his death in April, 1835.

Slater is known as the “Father of the American Industrial Revolution.” His first mill, Slater Mill , in Pawtucket remains an important historic site that tells the story of the birth of the American Industrial Revolution. This event changed the United States forever, and still affects us today.

In 1665, the first members of the Wilkinson family arrived in Rhode Island. Lawrence Wilkinson, of Lancaster, England, immigrated to New England and settled in Providence in 1657. He gained prominence as a military and political leader. The younger members of the Wilkinson family moved to Cumberland and Smithfield, Rhode Island. Several generations later, descendant Oziel Wilkinson was a successful blacksmith in Smithfield, Rhode Island. In the 1780s, Oziel moved his family to the growing village of Pawtucket, located in North Providence. There, he began making anchors for the community’s growing shipbuilding industry. His son, David, proved himself a skilled machinist and inventor. As fate would have it, the Wilkinson’s story crossed paths with a young Samuel Slater in 1790. As Slater attempted to rework the faulty equipment Almy and Brown purchased, he relied on local craftsmen. David Wilkinson became one of Slater’s most valuable assistants. However, the bonds between the Wilkinsons and Slater were more than just business acquaintances. The Wilkinsons became a second family to Slater. He courted and married their daughter Hannah. The Wilkinson family and Slater were close friends and confidants.

David Wilkinson’s work as an inventor and machinist were among some of his most important achievements. The screw cutting lathe was probably his most important invention. This machine standardized the cutting of screw threads. This meant people could use just one type of screw. This was a big advancement for helping people when making machines. His steam powered inventions were used in the cotton and woolen industries. These allowed shops and mills to be built anywhere, not just along waterways. Wilkinson also invented power looms. These looms were manufactured earlier than the more famous Draper Looms. He also designed parts of the Middlesex Canal and other canal systems in New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. In 1829, an economic depression forced David to sell off his mills. He resettled in New York shortly after. The legacy of the Wilkinson family is still felt on the property of Old Slater Mill National Historic Landmark. There the 1810 Wilkinson Mill remains as a testament to an important family who helped usher in the American Industrial Revolution.

“The motive power was furnished by a wheel, which was turned by an aged negro by the name of Prime…” - “A Report of the Celebration at Pawtucket, North Providence, of the One Hundredth Anniversary of the Incorporation of the Town,” (1865).

In many histories of Samuel Slater’s mill, there is a reference to a Black man providing power for Slater’s earliest machines. Two early records provide initial clues. In one record book, the newly arrived Slater was given money to pay a man named “Samuel Prime, for turning the wheel.” 1 In October 1790, Slater received money for his investors to pay for hire of “the black man who turned [provided power] for him.” 2

These account books are sparse. A more detailed (and possibly fabricated) story was published in the 1870s. Massena Goodrich’s Historical Sketch of the Town of Pawtucket (1876) described Slater’s early “operations” and offered significant detail on the man named Prime. “What power was needed was supplied by a wheel propelled by an aged negro of the name of Prime. He boasted a fuller name, or a brace of them, — Samuel Primus, or Primus Jenks. Having once been a slave of some of the Jenkses, he bore that reminder of his former relation to them.”

Did this worker really have “a brace” of names? Or was this simply a case of careless recordkeeping? Over time, the identity of the man who worked directly with Slater on these first machines has become difficult to determine. The 1790 census shows that a Primus Jenckes lived in Smithfield, RI, and a Primus Hopkins lived in Providence, RI. This worker could be one of these men or someone else entirely.

Other records do suggest that there was precedent for this type of arrangement. Prior to Slater’s arrival in the United States, merchants in Providence, RI were experimenting with textiles machinery. The machinist David Wilkinson recalled that some work on “a machine for carding cotton” took place in the 1780s. One “card was put in operation in the Market House chamber, in Providence, and was turned by a colored man, named Prince Hopkins [.]” Wilkinson also provides an unsubstantiated detail about Hopkins’s war service, unsure as to how he “lost one leg, I think, and one arm…a few years before.”

The confusion over Hopkins, and the question of who did the turning for Slater point to the lack of care and attention given to Black laborers in Rhode Island. In some cases, writing a fuller biography may not be possible. What can be determined is the significance of Black workers in this early period, before Black people were barred from working in such mills.

A Pawtucket Gazette and Chronicle article on Slater’s “Yellow Mill” includes the important note that in addition to “the cotton factory, they had a grist mill, and an oil mill…these last two were under the direction of a colored man by the name of “Prince.”’ 3 There are also records of other Black laborers, including a “Black John,” or “John Bucklin” living and working within Slater’s world. Bucklin was employed by the Wilkinsons in a different mill. Early on, a man named Sylvester Daby was also paid by Almy and Brown “for baskets” in December 1789. Men referred to as “Black Prince” and “Underwood” also appear in passing in historical records from the time.

John, Prince, Sylvester, and Primus, or Prime, or Samuel were on the ground floor of important developments in the textiles industry in the United States. Though their contributions have not been recognized with consistency or clarity, these and other Black workers were essential to the industrial revolution.

1) A transaction documented in an unbound paper labeled “Water Spinning Mashene to Almy and Brown 1789.” 2) Almy & Brown Records - Accounts, 1789-1790, MSS 29, Loose Vol. 25. 3) Pawtucket Gazette and Chronicle – February 7, 1873

Elizabeth Buffum Chace was born on December 9, 1806 in Smithfield, Rhode Island. She was a well-known activist in the anti-slavery, women’s rights, and prison reform movements. Throughout her life, Chace was surrounded by the influence of anti-slavery Quakers. Her father was the first president of the New England Anti-Slavery Society. Elizabeth also received a Quaker education at Friends’ Boarding School in Providence, Rhode Island. After her family moved to Fall River, Massachusetts, she met textile manufacturer Samuel Buffington Chace, who owned several textile mills throughout New England. Elizabeth and Samuel were married on April 4, 1828. She gave birth to ten children; only five of them survived to adulthood. Her anti-slavery beliefs radicalized during her marriage. The personal loss of several children strengthened her sympathy for enslaved mothers, whose children were in danger of being separated from them in both slave and free states. Chace joined the anti-slavery movement under the leadership of William Lloyd Garrison. In 1835, Chace and her sisters founded the Fall River Female Anti-Slavery Society. Despite backlash from other members, Chace fought for African American women to be allowed to serve as members.

In 1839, they moved to Valley Falls, Rhode Island, where Samuel resumed management of the Valley Falls Mill in the Blackstone River Valley. Their Valley Falls home became a stop on the Underground Railroad. Her work as a radical abolitionist attracted the attention of other famous anti-slavery activists. Frederick Douglas, Wendell Phillips, and Sojourner Truth spoke at events held at Chace’s Valley Falls home. Chace also focused on expanding the rights of women. She attended the first national women’s rights convention which was held in Worcester, Massachusetts in 1850. She became a tireless activist, fervently fighting for women’s suffrage in Rhode Island. She went on to serve as president of the Rhode Island Woman’s Suffrage Association. Chace remained an integral part of the women’s rights movement until her death in 1899. In her later years, she also advocated for prison reform and education for disenfranchised groups.

Born on December 25, 1776, John Slater was the younger brother of Samuel Slater . Like his brother, John attended school and then apprenticed in a mill. He also learned the latest technologies that the English Industrial Revolution had produced while working in Manchester and Oldham. In 1803, John brought his acquired knowledge to the United States. Samuel at first did not recognize his brother because they had been apart so long, but gave each other a loving embrace once he did. The two brothers worked with Almy and Brown to find a new location to build the biggest textile mill in the country.

John found a spot along the Branch River which he thought was perfect for this new mill. The river allowed for two mill ponds which would provide a constant flow of water all year long. The problem was there were only eight buildings, and the Slaters wanted several hundred workers to live there. They built a community which included houses for workers, stores, a farm, a church, and a school. This community was named Slatersville. It was the first planned industrial community in the country. John and his wife, Ruth, lived in Slatersville for the rest of their lives. He led the community through several expansions. He built two more mills, more mill houses, and made several other improvements to the community. John died in 1843, and is buried in the Slatersville Cemetery.

We know very little about Wilbur Kelly’s origins. Born around 1782 in Massachusetts, Kelly spent the first half of his life working on the high seas. After managing men on ships, Kelly set his sights on land, overseeing the operation of multiple mills and an early mill village in Rhode Island.

Sometime in his youth, Kelly went to sea to work in the booming U.S. domestic and international shipping industry. By 1810, Kelly rose to the rank of captain, managing ships for the Brown and Ives Company based out of Providence, RI. That year, he also married Abby Eliza Whipple, the only daughter of Christopher Whipple, a Revolutionary War veteran.

Throughout the War of 1812 , Kelly worked as a ship’s captain, most likely transporting goods domestically. In 1815, Kelly set sail for China with over 50,000 tons of cargo on the Ann and Hope. Captain Kelly made multiple, speedy trips to Canton, buying, and selling goods in port, and enriching himself as well as Brown & Ives.

After traveling to faraway ports in Amsterdam and India, Kelly decided to make a living on land. Enriched from his most recent voyage, Kelly invested in the Wenscutt Mill (located in North Providence, RI) in 1816. Kelly lost that investment within a year. After spending more years at sea, Kelly tried investing in manufacturing again in 1823. This time, he purchased land, water rights, and a large interest in a mill. The Smithfield Cotton and Woolen Factory was located at a crossing point of the Blackstone River in modern Lincoln, Rhode Island. In addition to cotton manufacturing, Kelly was also an investor in the Blackstone Canal Company. The canal company purchased the right to dig the canal through his property. This decreased the costs and time to transport raw materials in from Providence and finished products back to the Providence markets and port.

On May 18, 1826, Kelly turned over control of the mill and village to his former employers the Brown and Ives Company. Now also working in the textile industry, Brown and Ives named their textile company the Lonsdale Company. Kelly was in turn hired by the Lonsdale Company as their head agent. He earned $500 a year for his services. Kelly began to purchase land and water rights along the Blackstone River. In all, he purchased about 435 acres from Scott’s Pond on the south to the Kelly dam on the north.

Kelly established a part-time residence near the mill and continued focusing on building a legacy for his family on land. Abby and Wilbur raised four children. Daughter Abby married a merchant and lived in Providence. Their son Robert followed in his father’s footsteps by serving in the United States Navy. He was a casualty of the Civil War. Sons George and Christopher stayed close to home, managing aspects of the mill business. Around 1835, Kelly set up a home for his son, Christopher, near the Blackstone Canal. That property is now the Kelly House Museum of Transportation .

In his older years, Kelly's primary residence was on Benefit Street in Providence. From his elevated position in society, Kelly advocated for his business interests, which included the support of the slave cloth industry. In 1835, Kelly was among the Providence area businessmen who labeled abolitionists as "reckless fanatics." He argued that anti-slavery leaders were “dangerous to the existing relations of friendship and of business between different sections of our country…” By the eve of the Civil War, nearly 4 out of 5 textile business in Rhode Island were involved in the manufacture of slave cloth.

Kelly was active in the Union Insurance Company of Providence. His role as head agent propelled the Lonsdale Company to even greater heights in New England’s textile industry. By his death in 1846, the Lonsdale Company was one of New England’s largest textile manufacturing companies.

Doug Reynolds, “Ship’s Captain, Shop’s Cotton: Wilber Kelly and Early American Industrialization,” Rhode Island History 49, No. 2. (May 1991): 37-50.

“Rapid Sailing,” Rhode-Island American, and General Advertiser (Providence, RI): June 10, 1823, p.3.

Elizabeth, known as “Lillie,” Buffum Chace Wyman was the seventh child of Samuel and Elizabeth Buffam Chace. The oldest daughter to survive to adulthood, Lillie grew up under the strong Quaker influence of her father and mother. Young Lillie had a passion for literature, undoubtedly encourage by her parents. She read such Abolitionist works as Uncle Tom’s Cabin and William Lloyd Garrison’s newspaper The Liberator. After the abolition of American slavery, Lillie’s famous mother turned her attention to women’s suffrage. Although her mother was noted for her progressive work in the family’s mill village, providing for adult and child education, her daughter didn’t think these steps went far enough. Growing up in the family home, Lillie lived next to her family’s mill and village. There she became aware of the struggles of the working-class. She especially became concerned for the women and children operatives in her father’s mills. Lillie became a writer. She published short, fictional stories which demonstrated the sad quality of life endured by mill workers. Many of these mill workers were recent immigrants to the United States – these included French-Canadians, Irish, and English. Her writings in the 1870s seem to have inspired her mother to finally speak out on behalf of working-class women at a conference in Buffalo, New York in 1881. Lillie’s biggest accomplishment was the publication of Poverty Grass in 1886. This collection of short stories portrayed the harsh reality of mill life for working-class women and children. In one story, “Child of the State,” Lillie warned: “Men and women who labor eleven hours a day in the stifling air of a great factory have limitations to their freedom of will.” Drawing upon her firsthand experience as the daughter of a mill owner living in Valley Falls, the picture Lillie painted was bleak. In another story, “Luke Gardner’s Love,” Lillie implicitly attacked her parent’s indifference to the struggles of their workers. While focusing on the slaves of the American South, Lillie feared the workers in her parent’s mill were well on their way to becoming chattel slaves themselves. She admitted that if she did have a purpose or a motive for her writing, “it has been that I might help ever so slightly to make the fortunate ones of this world know the less happy ones well enough to sympathize with them.” Much like her idol Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Lillie hoped to make the plight of the worker known to her middle and upper class patrons who either were ignorant or turned a blind eye.

Abby Kelley Foster felt she had a divine call “to engage in the abolitionist movement.” She was born on January 15, 1811, to Irish Quaker parents. Foster’s father was an independent farmer. His influence instilled a strong abolitionist tendency. She was raised in Worcester where she attended common school. Later, she studied at the New England Friends Boarding School in Providence, Rhode Island. After graduation in 1829, Foster became a teacher and at different times in Lynn, Worcester, and Millbury, Massachusetts. Foster’s interest in the abolitionist movement intensified under the influences of friend and fellow abolitionist, William Lloyd Garrison. She joined the Female Anti-Slavery Society as the corresponding secretary. As a national delegate to the first Anti-Slavery Convention of American Women, she made her first anti-slavery speech. The speech was so well received that Foster decided to leave her teaching career. Foster embarked on a crusade of reform that spanned two decades. She spoke along the East Coast and in the Midwest becoming an integral figure in abolitionist movement. Foster also aligned her abolitionist campaign with the struggle for women’s suffrage. She attended the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848 and helped organize the first national women’s rights convention in Worcester, Massachusetts. In her speech at the convention she proclaimed, “Bloody feet, sisters, have worn smooth the path by which you come hither.” Abby Kelley Foster passed away in 1887, and she was laid to rest at her home, Liberty Farm, in Worcester, Massachusetts.

Brown and Ives was founded by Nicholas Brown, Jr. and Thomas Poynton Ives. Ives was born in Beverly, Massachusetts in 1769. Ives was sent to Boston to live with relatives after his father died. At the age of thirteen, he began an apprenticeship with Nicholas Brown, Sr. of Providence. That is how he met Brown’s son, Nicholas Brown, Jr. When Nicholas Sr. died the two young men started their own mercantile firm. Brown and Ives’ ships traveled the globe. They became important players in the China Trade and owned a large fleet of vessels that traveled the world. Some of these ships returned with cargos of silks, spices and tea worth hundreds of thousands of dollars in the early 1800s. The Napoleonic Wars along with the US Embargo Act of 1807, and the War of 1812 made it dangerous for American ships to continue trading around the world.

Brown and Ives decided to invest in the new textile industry. Their first mill was the Blackstone Manufacturing Company, built in 1809 in what is now Blackstone, MA. While most mills built during this period had a few hundred spindles to make thread, the Blackstone Mill had 5,000 spindles. This gives us an idea of how much money Brown and Ives had to invest in the new industry. The success of the Blackstone Mill encouraged Brown and Ives to get out of the merchant trade and move into textiles. In 1825, Brown and Ives formed The Lonsdale Water Power Company, later known as the Lonsdale Company. Under this name they would build a new textile empire along the Blackstone River . Captain Wilbur Kelly , a former employee of Brown and Ives, sold his small mill and village in modern Lincoln, Rhode Island to them. They hired Kelly to work as their head agent. The company began construction on a new mill village they named Lonsdale in 1831. Thomas Ives and Nicholas Brown, Jr., died in 1835 and 1841 respectively. Ownership of the company passed to their descendants.

In 1867 the Lonsdale Company built a new mill village at Ashton . Brown and Ives also owned other villages, including Berkeley (1871). They were known for their production of high-quality textile products. They also expanded Lonsdale, building the “new village” across the Blackstone in Cumberland. This included building the Ann & Hope Mill in 1886. This mill was named after Nicholas Brown and Thomas Ives’ wives, Ann Brown and Hope Brown Ives. It had earlier been the name of Captain Kelly’s ship as well.

Adin Ballou is one of the most interesting figures of the Blackstone Valley. Ballou was a religious idealist. His beliefs in pacifism, socialism, and abolitionism came together in Hopedale . Ballou hoped this community would be the first of many that would change society. Ballou was born on April 23, 1803, on a small farm in Cumberland, Rhode Island. He became a Universalist Minister. After his first wife died in 1829 after giving birth to a daughter, Ballou fell seriously ill. A young woman named Lucy Hunter nursed him back to health. Shortly after his sickness, he married Lucy. Lucy remained his wife and companion for the rest of his life.

By 1841, Ballou was convinced his ideas could reshape society . He and forty-four followers purchased a 258-acre farm along the Mill River. They named their community “Fraternal Community Number 1.” They believed their experiment was the first of many more to follow. Their commune was based upon the ideals of Practical Christianity. They thought that society should be remade on the principals of Christianity. Community members believed in temperance, abolitionism, women’s rights, socialism, and non-violence. Ballou’s dream failed in 1856. Commune member Ebenezer Draper and his brother George held most of the shares in Hopedale. The brothers converted the village from a commune to a mill village . Ballou remained as Hopedale’s minister. The village continued to be a place of progressive thought and action. In 1880, Ballou retired from being the minister in Hopedale. He published a history of the local area in 1882. He died in 1890 at the age of 87. Ballou’s legacy remains in the street names of Hopedale - “Peace,” “Hope,” “Freedom,” and “Union.” It is not difficult to see what Ballou stood for. A statue of Ballou is located in Adin Ballou Park in Hopedale, Massachusetts.

Born on July 18, 1814, Abigail “Abby” Hills Price was a leading advocate in the early woman’s rights movement. Abby married Edmund Price, a hatter, and moved to the Hopedale Community in 1842. They were two of the early members of the community there. Strongly anti-war, Abby also advocated for a woman’s right to speak and participate fully in society. For a time, Hopedale was a good fit for the Prices. Abby was a prolific writer who authored several articles in the Hopedale-based paper, The Practical Christian. Her first article, “Our Country,” was on abolition. Hopedale’s religious leader Adin Ballou referred to her as “a sort of poet-laureate to the Community.” In 1843, she was elected Community secretary. Aside from her work in Hopedale, Price wrote articles for reform newspapers such as The Una and the Liberator . Price also wrote several hymns and served as a member in the New England Non-Resistance Society. After briefly leaving the Hopedale Community in 1848, she returned and was elected secretary-treasurer of the Beneficent Society. In Hopedale, women could exercise their right to vote. This was not true outside the confines of the community in most of the United States. Price fervently spoke on equal rights for women. In 1851, she gave a speech before the Woman’s Rights Convention in Worcester, Massachusetts. Price emphasized the need for the inclusion of women in government and well compensated employment so that women would have the ability to become financially independent. The convention went on to approve the resolutions made by Price which gave special emphasis to the ability to vote as the cornerstone of the movement. Price left Hopedale for another utopian community at Raritan Bay, New Jersey in 1853. She later relocated again, this time to Brooklyn, New York. There, Price remained close friends with American poet Walt Whitman for many years. She died in 1878.

After his service in the Revolutionary War, Colonel Paul Whitin served as an apprentice in an iron forge in the small community of South Northbridge. James Fletcher owned the forge along the Mumford River. Paul married Fletcher’s daughter, Betsy, with whom he had five sons and a daughter. The Whitin-Fletcher alliance was solidified in 1809 with the establishment of the Northbridge Cotton Mill. Whitin went into partnership with his sons in 1826. Paul, Jr. and John C. were founding members with their father. The company was named Paul Whitin and Sons. John’s inventiveness and marketing acumen led to the development of the Whitin Machine Works. Eventually this overshadowed the family cotton mills. The developing machine works became the world’s largest textile machine shop. After Paul’s death in 1831, his wife, Betsy Whitin maintained nominal control of the company. But by 1864, she decided to split the family’s businesses among her four sons. Paul, Jr. received the Rockdale and Riverdale Mills. Charles received the Whitinsville Cotton Mill and the 1826 brick mill. James got the Crown and Eagle Mill, and he eventually would build the Linwood Mill in partnership with his brother Charles. And John received the Whitin Machine Shop, the crown jewel of the family’s holdings.

By 1948, over 5,600 people worked for the Whitins. To house these workers, the Whitins built nearly 1,000 worker dwellings between the 1820s and 1920s. The Whitins also built or subsidized the town’s schools, churches, town hall, library, and recreational facilities. The Whitins constructed grand homes in the community. From these homes they dictated many aspects of the town’s political and social life. They utilized a system of benevolent paternalism. They provided job security and an orderly environment in exchange for worker loyalty. By the late 1940s, worker loyalty was neutralized by a tide of labor unrest . When employees voted to unionize, company president E. Kent Swift resigned. Swift was the last of six generations of Whitins to run the company. The Whitins sold their interests in Whitin Machine Works along with their town properties.

The Blackstone River Valley of Massachusetts and Rhode Island is the Birthplace of the American Industrial Revolution, the place where America made the transformation from Farm to Factory. America’s first textile mill could have been built along practically any river on the eastern seaboard, but in 1790 the forces of capital, ingenuity, mechanical know-how and skilled labor came together at Pawtucket, Rhode Island where the Blackstone River provided the power that kicked off America’s drive to industrialization. The success of this mill (now known as Slater Mill ) inspired other entrepreneurs to build their own mills, first throughout the Blackstone Valley and then eventually all over New England. To take advantage of water power sources, new mill villages were built where once only field and forest stood.

Here investors built not only mills, but homes, schools and churches for their workers. The lifestyle changes for these new mill workers, mostly Yankee farmers, were dramatic. On the farm, the seasons and the sun governed the workday. Once in the mill, the rhythm of nature was replaced by the tolling of the factory bell. Time became a commodity, to be strictly measured and sold at a set rate. The artisan's skill or farmer's produce no longer had as much value as the sheer amount of time a worker was able to stand beside their ceaseless machine.

As larger mills were constructed over the 1800's, new workers were needed to fill them. Immigrants from Ireland, Canada, Italy, Portugal, Poland, and Latin America flocked to the Valley in successive waves. Each added their own unique culture to the story of the Blackstone Valley. Check out the links below to learn more about the People, Places, and Stories of the Blackstone River Valley.