Spinning jenny spinning jenny. It started the factory system. The spinning jenny was invented by James Hargreaves. He was born in Oswaldtwistle, near Blackburn, around 1720. Blackburn was a town with a population of about 5,000, known for the production of "Blackburn greys," cloths of linen warp and cotton weft initially imported from India. They were usually sent to London to be printed. At the time, cotton production could not keep up with demand of the textile industry, and Hargreaves spent some time considering how to improve the process. The flying shuttle (John Kay 1733) had increased yarn demand by the weavers
Spinning bee to see who could make the most homemade cloth, known as homespun. These contest became known as spinning bees. The Sons of Liberty often co-hosted these events with the Daughters of Liberty as a way to publicly support the Patriot cause against the British. Like other local festivities of the time, spinning bees included songs, picnics, and friendly competitions. Newspaper accounts, for example those from Rhode Island, also demonstrate that spinning bees attempted to use the spirit of competition to bridge the gap between married and unmarried women as well as lower- and upper-class women. The spinning bees would often