Blackstone River Valley National Historical Park

Seth Luther

Stories about history can change depending on who’s telling them. We used 3D imaging technology to share what life was like for young people who worked in textile mills in the early days of North American industry.

The Reverend Adin Ballou was a pacifist. His father, Ariel Ballou, served in the Revolutionary War. How did Adin Ballou make sense of both his pacifist values and his revolutionary inheritance?

This article discusses the Providence Tea Party which happened on March 2, 1775, just a month and a half before the outbreak of the War for Independence

A lot can happen to a family business in 200 years. The Whitin Machine Works, based out of Whitinsville, Massachusetts, is a prime case study in the rise and fall of the age of American manufacturing. From a small forge in a rural area, the Fletcher and Whitin families created a veritable dynasty along the Mumford River. Starting with basic tools, heirs to this business made an industrial powerhouse.

Did you know you can visit the birthplace of the American Industrial Revolution and see the first mills that sparked one of the greatest societal changes ever seen? Throughout the John H. Chafee Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, the Industrial Revolution comes alive.

The story of the Wilkinson family is one of the more dramatic and important, if generally overlooked, tales in the early development of the Industrial Revolution. Theirs is also a story forged in the fires of revolution.

Learn more about how the Blackstone River Valley NHP played an important role in the years following the American Revolution.

The mounting conflict between the colonies and England in the 1760s and 1770s reinforced a growing conviction that Americans should be less dependent on their mother country for manufactures. Spinning bees and bounties encouraged the manufacture of homespun cloth as a substitute for English imports.