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The Sparta Cotton Mill in South Carolina in 1909; a lot has changed from the machinery built by Slater in 1790
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The First American Cotton Mill Began Operation
December 20, 1790
The first American power loom was constructed in 1813. This machine weaves thread or yarn into sheets of fabric. Daughters of local farmers often did the spinning and weaving in the mills. In later years, immigrants became mill "hands." By the 1920s, the South took over textile production from New England. Mills in the South were closer to raw material and offered jobs to Southern laborers desperate for work. Entire families labored together in the textile mills of Georgia and the Carolinas.
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