Documentary | Slatersville: America's First Mill Village, Season 1
I recently finished watching the first season of Slatersville: America’s First Mill Village, which was directed, edited, and produced by award-winning local filmmaker Christian de Rezendes of Breaking Branch Pictures. I last met de Rezendes, along with Slatersville researcher-producer Gail Denomme, at North Smithfield Heritage Day on July 8, where they led tours using the history featured in the documentary. The series itself was nominated for a 46th Boston/New England Emmy Award in the documentary category and won the music composition/arrangement category for its score composed by Stephen Gilbane. Besides its high artistic merit, the documentary shared stories of Slatersville and its residents that had never before been published.
“Episode 1: The Mental Smugglers” covered the life of Samuel Slater, a mill worker from Belper, England, an industrial town in the Amber Valley within the county of Derbyshire. Slater memorized the entire textile mill production process and built his own factory in Pawtucket, RI. The episode explains the financial support from Moses Brown, who became an abolitionist despite familial wealth coming from slavery, and Brown’s son-in-law plus business partner, William Almy. I immensely enjoyed seeing the British impression of Samuel Slater and his entrepreneurial younger brother, John Slater, who are regarded as either folk heroes or traitors by the residents of their hometown. The inclusion of snippets from a Samuel Slater themed play, movie, and song was extra fun. Additionally, although I knew about the use of child labor in the mills, I had not heard of Primus Jenks, an enslaved African-American man who worked with Samuel Slater and Sylvenus Brown, unrelated to the wealthy Brown family.
“Episode 2: Controlling No Man’s Land” follows the Slater brothers after they broke away from Brown & Almy to pursue their own business ventures. John Slater built Slatersville, named for himself, in a remote area with ample waterpower. I was most familiar with the content appearing in this episode. I appreciated the focus on Ruth Bucklin Slater, the wife of John, as she had heavy influence over the religious and moral lives of those who lived in Slatersville. While Ruth staunchly support temperance and banned the sale of alcohol in Slatersville, John got a liquor license several towns over in Connecticut so he could pay his workers with alcohol. I loved the comparisons between similar industrial structures built in Slatersville versus those built in Belper by textile mill owner Jedidiah Strutt.
“Episode 3: The Great Change” had two main competing areas of focus and was the most depressing episode of the series due to the high death count. About half of the episode was dedicated to the life and work of Dr. Elisha Bartlett, the first mayor of the industrial city of Lowell, MA and a famous medical doctor. As the son-in-law to John & Ruth Slater through his marriage to their eldest daughter, Elizabeth Slater Bartlett, Dr. Bartlett received a beautiful Slatersville home from his in-laws. Dr. Bartlett had a mixed contribution to the well-being of others, as he discovered important methods of disease prevention yet supported the use of child labor in mills. He died prematurely at age fifty from what was likely ALS before his legacy could be fully realized. The other half of the episode concentrated on French-Canadian history in Rhode Island, especially Woonsocket. The Museum of Work & Culture, where I previously worked and am therefore biased, had an excellent showing during its demonstration of Franco-American life, and the interviewed members of the Tessier family were hilarious.
“Episode 4: Conscience Money” showcased on the lives and business exploits of the two surviving sons of John & Ruth Slater, William Smith Slater and John Fox Slater. William remained in Slatersville, ran the mill village, and provided for his surviving children and grandchildren. He hired local architect Gen. William R. Walker to built the elegant mansion Cloud Hill as a wedding present for his middle daughter, Elizabeth Ives Slater Reed. The museum is now run by his great-great-granddaughter, Anne D. Holst, who appeared on the documentary and provided many primary resources for the project. Meanwhile, John created his own factory in the village of Jewett City, CT and built them a modest library named after himself. He resided in Norwich, CT, where he constructed Norwich Free Academy, which hosts a museum in his honor; Park Congregational Church in Norwich; and a Victorian style mansion for himself. Additionally, he donated huge sums of money to build schools and provide scholarships for African-American scholars and their schools, including Booker T. Washington, George Washington Carver, and W.E.B. Dubois. However, this money is tainted by the fact that his family wealth came from the textile industry, which relied on slave labor for cotton production.
“Episode 5: The World According to Uncle Johnny” was the most frustrating episode, as the third and fourth generations of the Slater family lavishly spent the money that their ancestors earned. Most annoying was John “Uncle Johnny” Whipple Slater who used his inheritance to buy an oversized yacht and travel the world, disrespected his older sisters, ruined the family business through neglect, and sold it to equally terrible business owner, James Ripley Hooper. I felt badly for Rufus Waterman III, the grandson of William Smith Slater through his youngest daughter Helen Morris Slater Waterman, as the family told Rufus to leave his desired line of work and run the failing mill village while Uncle Johnny stayed on vacation. Fortunately, Rufus did have a creative outlet, as he and his wife, Alice Leete Church Waterman, created colorized photographs depicting colonial life with nearby Hearthside House as the setting.
While this documentary draws on an incredibly wide breadth of historical knowledge and may not be for the more casual viewer, those interested in Rhode Island history or the American Industrial Revolution would greatly benefit from a viewing. The five episodes of Season 1 aired on Rhode Island Public Television (RIPBS) in 2022, and the entirety of the series can be viewed online via the PBS website and through the PBS app for mobile devices and smart TVs. Each episode is about an hour in length. The final six episodes of Season 2 will air in 2024, completing the documentary. The player on the PBS website includes both closed captions and a transcript, but no audio description is available at this time.
Abby Epplett’s Rating System
Experience: 7/10
Accessibility: 8/10