Unit 1: Gilded Age
Cornelius Vanderbilt
This man made his fortune from the railroad and shipping industries; he helped found a university in Tennessee.
Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire
146 people died due to the lack of safe work conditions in this New York factory in 1911.
Homestead Strike (1892)
1892 steel industry strike in Homestead, Pennsylvania
Trust
A GROUP of corporations that work together to reduce competition and control prices in a business or industry
Laissez-faire
A theory that economies work best when there is minimal to no government involvement
Robber Baron
A way to describe famous businessmen that emphasizes how they became rich through ruthless and sometimes corrupt business practices.
Captain of Industry
A way to describe famous businessmen that emphasizes how they were philanthropists, giving away the money they made to good causes like public education, libraries, etc.
Scab
A worker called in by an employer to replace striking laborers
Capitalism
An economic system based on private property and free enterprise.
Andrew Carnegie
Born in Scotland, he expanded the steel industry in the U.S.
J.P. Morgan
Born into a wealthy family, he was a banker who bought Carnegie Steel and renamed it to U.S. Steel.
Tenement
Cheap, cramped, dirty apartment buildings built to meet the demand of growing urbanization
Haymarket Square Riot, 1886
Chicago 1886: Workers were striking for an 8-hour work day. During a demonstration, a bomb was thrown at police and chaos ensued. Eight anarchists were then arrested, and membership in unions declined as a result of this strike.
John D. Rockefeller
He established the Standard Oil Company.
Monopoly
ONE company controls all the production and sales of a particular product or service
Pinkerton
Private security guards hired to intimidate striking workers
Pullman Strike (1894)
Railroad strike that started when the Pullman Palace Car Company cut wages while maintaining high rents, led by Eugene Debs, ended when President Grover Cleveland called in federal troops.
Light Bulb
This invention allowed for light at all hours of the day
Telephone
This invention allowed people to hear each other's voices
Steel
This invention quickly became the most widely used metal in construction, machinery, and railroad equipment
Telegraph
This invention used electrical signals and Morse Code to send messages over long distances
Typewriter
This invention was a keyboard machine for writing
Assembly Line
This invention was a production method that broke down a complex job into a series of smaller tasks; workers repeated the same task all day
