Samuel Slater interview

He sits down on the sofa, and smiles politely. You can see from is face that he’s secretly analysing everything in the room, after what seemed like five minutes he turns back to me and makes eye contact again.
He relaxes as he thinks back to his long, wealthy life. “I grow up in Belper, Derbyshire, England, it’s a little quiet town in the countryside, Birds singing, children playing, it’s a joyful place, but it’s also was very poor rural place, but you see when I was growing up I didn’t know any different, so I was oblivious to all the poverty, and just a happy child.
A small frown flashes across his face. Thinking hard he finally answers, “I first became involved in the textile industry at the age of 14, I was an apprentice to a man called” he pauses “Jedediah Strutt, he was a kind man, but very strict at times especially if I messed about when I was supposed to be working!” he takes a long breath of air “He worked for a man called Richard Arkwright, he was the owner of one of the first ever mills in Belper.”
“After seven years of working at the mill I decided I could do better than working in a dirty cotton mill, it was a dangerous job, I had to crawl in to the cotton looms to fix the broken thread, so I decided that I would study the cotton loom, memorize it in my head, and then when I had memorized the whole machine sail to America.
It was hard at time to stick to my ideas he admits, “I had a family in Belper and even if I didn’t enjoy it at least my job paid.” He sits still for a moment and closing his eyes he lets out a quite chuckle “I never thought I would actually do it, go against the law, and actually leave Belper!”
“When I thought about why I wanted to leave, it was because I didn’t want to end up like my father, all though I loved him dearly, I didn’t want to become poor and have nothing like he did, I wanted to do something big, I wanted succeed at life. So after eight years of working at the cotton mill, one night I snuck out of our two up two down farm house, where I shared a bed with my Brother and father. I had done it, I had left my home in Belper, snuck in to a large ship, I’m not sure what type of ship, but I got onto it and smuggled myself to America.
I was a stubborn man even if I had come all the way from England I wasn’t going to just build them a cotton loom, I wanted to be fully reimbursed, for my hours of hard labour” He says as if he’s mocking himself “Finally in 1790, I built a cotton mill for the Americans.
“The Americans now call me the father of the American industrial revolution, it’s a title I like, it makes me feel as if I actually have accomplished something larger in my life.” He pauses, “I have been well looked after by someone higher than us all, I’m a lucky man.”
He stands up, smoothes out his shirt, shakes my hand, then says “it’s been a pleasure” and walks out. I sigh, lean back in my chair, and think to myself, another successful and interesting interview.