The venue for this presentation is the historic Manchaug Mills in which hundreds of French-Canadian immigrants worked during the late 19th and early 20th century. The Village of Manchaug, recently named to the National Register of Historic Places, was a company-owned Village with over 1600 residents, mostly of French-Canadian descent, living and working in the one-square mile village at the turn of the 20th century. Manchaug, a surviving example of the hundreds of similar textile-manufacturing villages throughout New England, boasts period architecture including a company-store building, the mill office building which currently houses the post office, the Mill agent’s home with a distinct mansard roof, as well as many original tenement houses.
The Village of Wilkinsonville in Sutton also boasted a large Franco-American population. These immigrant workers were employed by the Sutton Manufacturing Company which was under the umbrella of Slater & Sons. The company founded by Samuel Slater (b. 1768 d.1835), continued operations in Wilkinsonville from 1829 through 1907. Samuel Slater was an early American industrialist known as the "Father of the Industrial Revolution" and the "Father of the American Factory System".
The Village of Wilkinsonville in Sutton also boasted a large Franco-American population. These immigrant workers were employed by the Sutton Manufacturing Company which was under the umbrella of Slater & Sons. The company founded by Samuel Slater (b. 1768 d.1835), continued operations in Wilkinsonville from 1829 through 1907. Samuel Slater was an early American industrialist known as the "Father of the Industrial Revolution" and the "Father of the American Factory System".