Hannah Slater (née Wilkinson, 1774 – 1812) was an early American pioneer and inventor. Some sources state that she was the first American woman to receive a patent, however others state that Hazel Irwin, in 1808, or

Mary Kies Mary Dixon Kies (March 21, 1752 – 1837) was an American inventor. On May 5, 1809, her patent for a new technique of weaving straw with silk and thread to make hats was signed by President James Madison. Some sources say she was the first wom ...

, in 1809, was the first.

Early life

Slater grew up in a

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belie ...

family in Pawtucket,

Rhode Island Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the List of U.S. states by area, smallest U.S. state by area and the List of states and territories of the United States ...

, with two sisters, five brothers and parents Lydia and Oziel. Her father was a successful businessman and business partner of

Moses Brown Moses Brown (September 23, 1738 – September 6, 1836) was an American abolitionist and industrialist from New England, who funded the design and construction of some of the first factory houses for spinning machines during the American industr ...

, who was in turn in business with

Samuel Slater Samuel Slater (June 9, 1768 – April 21, 1835) was an early English-American industrialist known as the "Father of the American Industrial Revolution" (a phrase coined by Andrew Jackson) and the "Father of the American Factory System". In the ...

, an industrialist. Brown recommended the Wilkinson home as a suitable place for Samuel Slater to board when he arrived in the area in early 1790. At the time, Hannah was 15 years old. Oziel and Lydia were initially against Hannah marrying someone who was not a Quaker; however they relented and on October 2, 1791, Hannah and Samuel were married. In the same year, Samuel opened his own mill in the area and began to build machinery for manufacturing textiles, modeled after the machines he was familiar with in England. This mill has been preserved as a historical site and is known as the

Slater Mill Historic Site The Slater Mill is a historic water-powered textile mill complex on the banks of the Blackstone River in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, modeled after cotton spinning mills first established in England. It is the first water-powered cotton spinning mil ...

Adult life

Invention

In 1793, Samuel Slater showed Hannah some very smooth yarn he had spun from long staple Surinam cotton. He intended to use it to produce cloth; however, Hannah and her sister used a hand spinning wheel to spin it into thread, and the resulting thread proved to be stronger than linen thread. The same year, Hannah applied to the

U.S. Patent Office The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is an agency in the U.S. Department of Commerce that serves as the national patent office and trademark registration authority for the United States. The USPTO's headquarters are in Alexa ...

for a patent for an invention - a new method of producing sewing thread from cotton. The patent was issued in the name of "Mrs Samuel Slater".

Community work

Slater was active in religious and welfare organisations in the Pawtucket community, such as the creation of a village Sunday School, and in 1809 a Female Beneficent Society. Slater was treasurer for the society and her sister Lydia was one of its directors.

Family

Slater gave birth to 10 children, four of whom died in infancy or childhood. The known children and their years of birth are William (b. 1796), Elizabeth (b. 1798), Mary (b. 1801), Samuel (b. 1802), George (b. 1804), John (b. 1805), Horatio (b. 1808), William (b. 1809) and Thomas (b. 1812). Slater died in 1812 about two weeks after the birth of her last child, from complications of childbirth. She was 37 years old. Her husband wrote in his memoirs that after her death "the poor lamented her, whose charities and kindness they had experienced". Slater was buried at Mineral Spring Cemetery.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Slater, Hannah 1774 births 1812 deaths 18th-century Quakers 19th-century Quakers 18th-century American inventors American patent holders Deaths in childbirth People from Pawtucket, Rhode Island Inventors from Rhode Island