In the area from Providence, Rhode Island to Worcester, Massachusetts, the Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor tells the story of industrialization in America and the transformation of a river from a source of food to a floating highway. The region also tells a story of growth and change as thousands of people came here from across the globe looking for work. Many still come today, especially from Central and South America, creating new communities and adding diversity to the area. Visitors to Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor can explore over 300 years of American history at the birthplace of the American Industrial Revolution with its dynamic landscape of historic and natural sites. With immigrants from other nations, Latino peoples are part of the heritage of the Blackstone River Valley.

William Blackstone and Roger Williams were among the earliest European settlers in the Blackstone River Valley. Blackstone helped to found Boston and then traveled west in 1635 to near present-day Cumberland, Rhode Island. Roger Williams helped to settle the Providence, Rhode Island area. Initially, most of the settlers were farmers. Following King Phillip’s War in the late 1600s, life in the valley began to change.

Towns rebuilt after the war embraced new technological developments, including the widespread use of waterpower and mills for manufacturing. In the late 1700s, Moses Brown, a merchant from Providence, and Samuel Slater, an Englishman, established a successful loom manufacturing company in Pawtucket, Rhode Island at Slater Mill, America’s first textile mill. The company set the standard for the development of mills throughout the Blackstone Valley. Today, visitors can visit Old Slater Mill as part of the Slater Mill Museum and learn more about life in the mills.

The need for a faster, cheaper way to move goods from the mills to markets and to bring in raw goods led to the construction of the Blackstone Canal that runs along, and sometimes in, the Blackstone River. Completed in 1828, the canal enabled mills to spread throughout the valley from Providence to Worcester. Canal boats pulled by horses transported products and passengers for only about 20 years, after which the railroad replaced boat traffic. In that time, the valley changed dramatically. Irish laborers built the canal, which was responsible for bringing immigrants to the United States. Between Providence and Worcester, visitors can bike along portions of the towpath, canoe, or kayak, and explore the history of the canal at a number of museums and historic homes by taking these Blackstone Valley Canal Tours.

Together, the Blackstone River and Blackstone Canal powered the industrial revolution in Rhode Island and Massachusetts. Courtesy of the National Park Service

The Waters Farm in Sutton, Massachusetts is a good example of the farms that dominated the region before mills. The Waters family built the first part of the farm in 1728. They grew apples and made apple cider to earn a living, but commercial trade was not a major part of life on the farm, so they produced most of what they needed themselves. At one point, the farm had its own blacksmith and carpenter’s shop, barn, and cider mill. Visitors can tour the farm and learn more about pre-Industrial life in the river valley and the Waters family, who lived on the property from the early 1700s to the late 1900s. Visitors can also explore the historic town of Sutton, which, like much of the valley, became more industrialized over time.

Chepachet Village, part of Gloucester, Rhode Island, was one of the earliest towns changed by the Industrial Revolution. Visitors can see an early mill constructed in 1814 to take advantage of the water that runs through the village. The Stone Mill is one of a number of downtown buildings that date from the early 1800s. In Chepachet, a mill, a Masonic Hall, a tavern, and a grocery store made the town a center of commercial activity. Larger mill buildings from a later period are also in the town.

By the mid-1800s, the larger mills needed more employees, which led to the growth of mill towns. In Georgiaville, part of Smithfield, Rhode Island, Zachariah Allen established a particularly successful mill in 1853 that became the basis for the life of the community. Mill housing still lines Stillwater Road. In this company town, the mill provided both a paycheck and a place to live. Workers and supervisors lived in separate employee housing. At Georgiaville Pond, visitors can look out over a landscape changed by the mill, where dams on the Woonasquatucket River created ponds that helped ensure a constant water level so that the mill could always run.

Founded in the 1840s as a Utopian village, Hopedale, Massachusetts is another good example of a mill town. Here, as in Smithfield, the mill and its owners shaped the town. The Draper Corporation constructed houses and institutional buildings. At the time, the company thought that by providing workers with good homes and other amenities, employees would work harder and the company could attract better prospective employees. The Draper Corporation became the largest manufacturer of equipment for the production of cotton textiles in the country. Workers came from all over to work the factory, including men and women from England, Scotland, Canada, Ireland, and Italy. By 1916, roughly 1,700 people worked in the factories; this number grew to almost 3,500 by 1951.

Colombian Festival in the Blackstone River Valley Courtesy of the Blackstone Valley Tourism Council, Flickr's Creative Commons

In the 1920s, mills began to decline in the United States, as manufacturing in the Northeast weakened. Life in the Blackstone River Valley is much different now than it was when Samuel Slater and Moses Brown teamed up to establish the textile industry in the United States roughly 130 years ago. The presence of the textile industry has diminished, though its impact has not. The area is still home to a rich mix of peoples; French-Canadians, Lithuanians, Ukrainians, Swedes, Poles, and the Portuguese were among the largest immigrant groups to come to the valley looking for opportunities.

More recently immigrants have arrived here from Central and South America, Southeast Asia, and almost every other corner of the globe. During the 1970s few young people of the Blackstone Valley wanted to take jobs in what they viewed to be a dying textile industry. Several factories began to recruit master weavers from Colombia, weavers who learned their craft on Draper Looms of the same vintage as those in the Blackstone Valley. Dominicans, Mexicans, Guatemalans and residents from many other Latin American nations joined the Colombians. Today, in some neighborhoods, such as along Dexter Street in Central Falls, Spanish signs hang on storefronts where earlier French or Polish were the languages spoken. Like those who came before them, the Latino and other more recent immigrants are part of the story and culture of the Blackstone River Valley.

Now the Blackstone River Valley cities of Pawtucket and Central Falls have the second highest concentration of Latinos living in Rhode Island. Annually, a Colombian-American Festival is held in Pawtucket to celebrate the Colombian culture and traditions, an integral part of the history of the Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor. The John H. Chafee Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor brings to life the story of the Industrial Revolution in the United States and the diversity of its immigrants from the 1800s until today. In its historic mill towns and other sites, visitors can learn firsthand what drew so many diverse peoples to the promise of opportunity there and what continues to attract immigrants today.