In the late 1800s and early 1900s, during the climax of the American Industrial Revolution, there was a small group of men who owned the major businesses and were leaders of their industries. They owned factories, railroads, banks, and even created company towns for the sole purpose of housing their workers. Due to the efforts of these few men, the U.S. economy became the envy of the world, and America became a leading world power. They provided the public with products that were in high demand for reasonable prices, and opened their markets to countries overseas. Although many people believe the early industrialists were Robber Barons who exploited the poor, these great men were truly Captains of Industry who created new ways of doing business, and provided products and services to the public; moreover, they were generous philanthropists who contributed much to society.
Many people believe that these "Robber Barons" were evil, heartless men that took advantage of the poor and the downtrodden. They feel that the workforce employed by these men was nothing more than a group of indentured slaves. "Here was a population, low-class and mostly foreign, hanging always on the verge of starvation, and dependent for its opportunities of life upon the whim of men every bit as brutal and unscrupulous as the old-time slave drivers;" (Sinclair 106). "The corporate robber barons and monopolists of the 19th century stole from the poor while the government looked the other way."(Gallagher) These industrialists made an enormous amount of money from their businesses and controlled their various markets through vast monopolies. They paid their workers very little money for extended periods of labor, and would continuously think of new wa...
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...than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience."(Henderson)
Works Cited
Andrew Carnegie: A Tribute. Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. 3 Aug. 2004
Danzer, Gerald A, et al. The Americans. USA: McDougal Litell, 1998.
Gallagher, Bill. "Bush Tax Policy Favors Robber Barons." Niagara Falls Reporter 3 Jun. 2003. Niagara Falls Reporter Archive. Niagara Falls Reporter. Mesa Verde High School. Citrus Heights. 30 Sept. 2004 .
Henderson, John E. The Christian Citizen. 1998. Christian Citizenship Ministry. 30 Sept. 2004 .
Newman, Doug. THINGS I WISH I HAD SAID. 2004. The Fountain of Truth. 3 Aug. 2004 .
Sinclair, Upton. The Jungle. New York: Bantom Books, 1981.
Robber Barons are known as ruthless capitalist or industrialist of the late 19th century, known to have gain wealthyness by exploiting natural resources, corrupting legislators, or other unethical means. The Myth of the Robber Barons is a book about the entrepreneurs Cornelius Vanderbilt, James J. Hill, Andrew Mellon, Johne D. Rockefeller, the Scranton family, and Charles Schwab. Many in todays sociaty would argure that these men were all robber barons, but this book gives us a hole new look in the history of these men and there lives and all they did for the rise in the U.S economic power.
During this era, businesses supplied large amounts of employment for citizens which created power for these businesses. They had the power to provide bad working conditions, lower wages, and fire their employees without any justification (Doc 1). George E. McNeill, a labor leader, states how “whim is law” and one can not object to it. The government took a laissez-faire approach and refused to regulate economic factors. This allowed robber barons and business tycoons to gain more authority of each industry through the means of horizontal and vertical integration. It wasn’t until later in the time period that the government passed a few acts to regulate these companies, such as the ICC and the Sherman Antitrust Act. One of the main successful industries was
By the turn of the nineteenth century, American industry experienced a dramatic upturn in popularity. However, though this industrialization was crucial for America's economic development, it also inevitably led to social turmoil. Corruption was rampant among government figures, and they bribed people with money, jobs, or favors to win their votes. Referred to as the Gilded Age, this era was indeed gilded, masking a plethora of social issues behind a thin veil of economic success. The most notable problems stemmed from the justification of what was called laissez-faire economics, in which the poor were believed to be poor exclusively based on their own shortcomings. The abundance of disposable factory workers faced awful hours and were treated
Robber Barons in America What is a robber baron? Webster’s New Dictionary defines him as an American capitalist of the late 19th century who became wealthy through exploitation (as of natural resources, governmental influence, or low wage scales) or a person who satisfies himself by depriving another. In America, we have a lot of these kinds of people. For this report, I am going to tell you about the ones that I found most interesting to me.
Both Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller dominated giant corporations, but they dictated much of the employees and greatly tried to divide out the employees from desperately trying to organize the reforms that would essentially stop the robber barons from taking advantage of them. The robber barons insisted that if you cannot work the day you are supposed to other than the Fourth of July, some other person will be a willing participant to come and take your job. The economy was dramatically failing because the wealth had been handed out unfairly and much the industry workers in the mining factories decimated during the accidents that occurred in those horrible working conditions. Due to the corruption of the government in the Gilded age, which lasted from the 1870 to the 1900s, most of the working class poor were barely struggling to stay alive and more family members had no choice but go into the labor force to provide for the family. The robber barons were held with much hostility in the society of American Capitalism. The society tried to look at the world in a scientific perspective that according to Social Darwinist’s theory in America, the human society was viewed in regards to the working class poor and the issues of poverty as a result of their own failure, the lack
During the Gilded Age, several Americans emerged as leaders in many fields such as, railroads, oil drilling, manufacturing and banking. The characterization of these leaders as “robber barons” is, unfortunately, nearly always correct in every instance of business management at this time. Most, if not all, of these leaders had little regard for the public or laborers at all and advocated for the concentration of wealth within tight-knit groups of wealthy business owners.
The industrial leaders, Robber Barons, of the 19th century are men who are very respected and admired. Andrew Carnegie was a boy from Scotland who came over to this country with nothing. He continued to save and work his way up in the industry until he had complete control over the steel industry. John D. Rockefeller was also one who came from an ordinary home. When he saw an opportunity, he took it, along with the risks. He came to control the oil industry. Another man that took many opportunities to expand and grow was Cornelius Vanderbilt. These men saw what they needed to do to become successful and they did it. These men's' lives reflected the Darwinian ideology of the times, "survival of the fittest".
In the late nineteenth century, many European immigrants traveled to the United States in search of a better life and good fortune. The unskilled industries of the Eastern United States eagerly employed these men who were willing to work long hours for low wages just to earn their food and board. Among the most heavily recruiting industries were the railroads and the steel mills of Western Pennsylvania. Particularly in the steel mills, the working conditions for these immigrants were very dangerous. Many men lost their lives to these giant steel-making machines. The immigrants suffered the most and also worked the most hours for the least amount of money. Living conditions were also poor, and often these immigrants would barely have enough money and time to do anything but work, eat, and sleep. There was also a continuous struggle between the workers and the owners of the mills, the capitalists. The capitalists were a very small, elite group of rich men who held most of the wealth in their industries. Strikes broke out often, some ending in violence and death. Many workers had no political freedom or even a voice in the company that employed them. However, through all of these hardships, the immigrants continued their struggle for a better life.
The mid-19th century is one of the major turnarounds in the history of the United States. That is the time when America became an industrial giant and emerged as one of the most powerful countries in the world. The Industrial Revolution changed the people’s way of living in the whole world, especially the United States, from hand and home productivity to machine and factory. America rose from a rural and agricultural country to an urban-industrial that introduced new technologies. The United States has been through a lot of ups and downs in spite of its emergence and three books tell the story of the Industrial America from three different perspectives.
———. “Robber Barons or Captains of the Industry.” History Now. Accessed December 7, 2011. Last modified June 2010. http://www.gilderlehrman.org.
The social and economic developments of the last quarter of the nineteenth century drastically changed the United States. The business world changed once industrialization was introduced to the world. Opportunities grew as people heard about the boundless American opportunities. Immigrants from all races flooded the cities which doubled in population from 1860-1900 (Barnes and Bowles, 2014, p. 34). However, as industries grew, owners prospered off the hard work of others. People started to feel they were not being treated fairly. People had to work harder and longer for their money. Barnes and Bowles (2014) noted “In the era of industrialization, millions of workers fought to simply have the right to work in safe conditions, and earn a fair wage” (p. 45). Many Americans feared that giant corporations would one day seek to restrict the ability of common people to get ahead and curtail individual freedoms. These fears were particularly strong among farmers, laborers, an...
Some of these industrialists’ methods may not have been fair. However, unfair acts are not always illegal acts. For the most part these men stayed within the boundaries of the law. In the cruel world we live in it is necessary to be ruthless in your work. There are several people who took their ruthlessness too far and contributed nothing to society but worked only for their own personal fortune. An example of this type of industrialist is Jay Gould (Maury Klein pg. 34). He is a robber baron in the truest sense of the word. However most of the powerful industrialists had financial goals for themselves as well as society.
characterizes the capitalists who shaped post-Civil War industrial America and it is valid that they would be properly distinguished as corrupt “robber barons”.
The first key player in the American industrial revolution was Francis Cabot Lowell. In 1810, in Waltham, Massachusetts, Lowell was responsible for building the first American factory for converting raw cotton into finished cloth. Large factories were built along the river to house the new water driven power looms for weaving textiles. At the same time that more factories were built to keep up with the growing demands of the consumer, the numbers of immigrants to the United States grew (Kellogg). This new labor force could be employed with even less pay and provided with a much lower standard of housing. This in turn increased the profit margi...
...y as “the root of all evil” would be too simplistic; what she suggests, rather, is that the distribution of wealth in mid-nineteenth-century America was uneven, and that those with money did little to effectively aid the workers whose exploitation made them rich in the first place. In her portrayals of Mitchell and the “Christian reformer” whose sermon Hugh hears (24), she even suggests that reformers, often wealthy themselves, have no useful perspective on the social ills they desire to reform. Money, she seems to suggest, provides for the rich a numbing comfort that distances them from the sufferings of laborers like Hugh: like Kirby, they see such laborers as necessary cogs in the economic machinery, rather than as fellow human beings whose human desires for the comfort, beauty, and kindness that money promises may drive them to destroy their own humanity.