Industrialization and the Labor Movement

Robber Baron

A business leader who became wealthy through dishonest methods

Gilded Age

A nickname for the late 1800's, describing how the wealth of a few masked society's problems

Sweatshop

Places where workers labor long hours under poor conditions for low wages

Assembly Line

A method that enabled goods to be made faster and better in factories

Urbanization

The rapid growth of cities

Haymarket Affair

An important conflict that symbolized the struggle between labor unions and government and business

Triangle Shirtwaist Fire

A preventable factory tragedy that killed girls and women, spurring the movement for better working conditions

Persecution

Being targeted - ranging from picked on, jailed or harmed - because of who you are

Tenements

City apartments with HORRIBLE conditions where poor people lived

Industrial Revolution

1800's, change from hand tools to factories and farming to manufacturing

Reform

To change something to make it better

Dates of Industrial Revolution

1840-1900

Progressive Era

Early 1900's movement focused on economic and social injustice, the power of big business, and political corruption.

Labor Union

A group of workers who band together to seek better working conditions

Strike

When labor unions refuse to work until employers give them what they want

Wage Slavery

Working for very low wages and not able to get out of it

Entrepreneurs

People who start, build and buy and sell businesses to make money