Cotton mill pioneer Arkwright ‘benefited from the slave trade’
THE “father of the factory system” contributed to the slave trade, English Heritage has said in a biographical update following Black Lives Matter protests.
The legacy of inventor Sir Richard Arkwright, credited with pioneering factory production in the 18th century, has been reassessed due to his profiting from the cotton trade during the Industrial Revolution.
English Heritage has included claims the mill owner benefited from a system that “exploited enslaved workers from Africa” in updated online information for his Blue Plaque.
The update has drawn criticism from historians concerned that history is being viewed only through the lens of slave trade.
New online information states: “Arkwright’s wealth from the cotton industry was inextricably linked to the transatlantic slave trade.
“The system exploited enslaved workers from Africa to work under horrifying conditions in the cotton plantations in the Americas.
“It is inevitable that any mill working in Britain at this time would have sourced the majority of their cotton from the slave plantations.
“As such, mill owners such as Arkwright both contributed to and benefited from the slave trade.”
The information has been added to an online entry on the Blue Plaque deceit to Arkwright, installed at 8 Adam Street near Charing Cross, where the industrialist lived during the final years before his death in 1792.
In the 1770s, Arkwright developed a “carding” machine which sped up the process prior to spinning, along with spinning frames which sped up the process of turning cotton fibre into workable yarn.
He used these machines in a string of mills, including a major complex in Cromford, Derbyshire, where his creation of a disciplined working day of 13-hour shifts, involving mechanised manufacturing, led to him being dubbed the “father of the factory system”.
The system was criticised at the time and subsequently for making use of child labour and for subjecting workers to conditions that were dangerous and inhumane. Concerns have been raised following English Heritage’s revision.
Cambridge historian Prof Robert Tombs said: “Arkwright is apparently being blamed for slavery, because most cotton was grown by slaves. So presumably mill workers, their dependents and all their customers are also responsible.
“By this logic, everybody was to blame – which is perhaps the best conclusion, as slavery was part of the world economy for millennia, and created much of what we now consider ‘world heritage’.”
Nigel Biggar, an Oxford professor, has criticised the viewing of Arkwright’s legacy purely through the lens of slavery, calling it a “politically biased, monomaniacal focus”.