Cotton: Key to New England’s Industrial Revolution

Cotton helped create America’s industrial revolution, centered in New England. The New England states played key roles in the American industrial revolution. Rivers, lakes and waterways provided power for factories long before the advent of the steam age. Eli Whitney’s cotton gin factory, on the outskirts of New Haven, Connecticut was on a riverbank as were the first cotton mills in Fall River, Massachusetts. The Slater Mill, outside of Providence, Rhode Island, was the first cotton mill in New England. A vast transportation system carried the South’s cotton both to Liverpool and New England. By the 1850’s the most important product of the entire American economy was southern cotton and New England’s cotton fabrics. This cotton industrial revolution was deeply intertwined with slavery. Ironically the abolitionist movement in the Unites States was based in New England. Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1851) set off a fire storm that culminated in the Civil War. Despite the carnage of the war, New England’s cotton mills continued well into the 20th century. This seminar will explore the history of cotton and its significant impact on New England.

Kurt Schlichting, Ph.D., is the E. Gerald Corrigan ’63 chair in humanities and social sciences emeritus at Fairfield University. Kurt served as the dean and associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, and he is a member of Phi Beta Kappa. His academic research leads the field of historic geographical information system, HGIS, which he used to study the Irish in Newport. He has lectured for the Newport Museum of Irish History and presented at academic conferences in the United States and abroad. Kurt was a visiting fellow at the Moore Research Institute, National University Ireland, Galway.