Business and Labor in the Industrial Era

Vocabulary flashcards covering key terms, figures, legislation, and events from Chapter 16 on industrialization, big business, and labor during the late nineteenth century.

Second Industrial Revolution

A period of unprecedented industrial and agricultural growth in the United States following the Civil War, propelled by a population boom and rebuilding efforts, and characterized by the coal steam engine, textile machines, and the blast furnace.

Bonanza Farms

Large-scale agricultural enterprises operated like factories with professional managers, shifting the agricultural economy away from small farms and toward a corporate industrial model.

Alexander Graham Bell

The inventor who patented the telephone in 1876 and founded the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) to build long-distance communication networks.

Thomas Alva Edison

America's most influential inventor who created the nation's first industrial research laboratory in New Jersey in 1876, invented the long-lasting electric lightbulb in 1879, and established the Edison Electric Illuminating Company.

George Westinghouse

The founder of the Westinghouse Electric Company who developed the alternating current (AC) electrical system, enabling high-voltage power transmission over long distances using transformers.

Nikola Tesla

A Croatian immigrant who worked for Edison and invented the alternating current (AC) motor, which he sold to George Westinghouse.

Pacific Railway Act of 1862

Civil War-era legislation passed by Congress authorizing the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroad companies to construct a transcontinental railway connecting Nebraska to Sacramento, California.

Coolie Laborers

A term used for Chinese manual laborers who built the Central Pacific Railroad track across difficult mountain terrain, enduring dangerous conditions, low pay, and racial discrimination.

Corporation

A legal entity separate from its owners that divides ownership from daily management operations, protecting stockholders from direct financial liability.

Robber Barons

A critical term applied to wealthy industrial leaders and financiers accused of building giant corporate monopolies and an aristocratic class through shady or ruthless business practices.

Andrew Carnegie

An industrialist who dominated the steel industry by adopting the Bessemer process, eventually founding the Carnegie Steel Company, which became the world's largest industrial enterprise by 1900.

Bessemer Process

A steelmaking method developed by Sir Henry Bessemer that increased steel quality and speed of production by blasting oxygen through molten iron to eliminate impurities efficiently.

JPMorgan

An investment banker who consolidated rival firms, bought Carnegie Steel in 1901, and created the U.S. Steel Corporation, the world's first billion-dollar company.

Richard Sears and Alvah Roebuck

Founders of a mail-order catalog business in the 1890s that enabled rural Americans to purchase goods directly at discounted prices without relying on local middlemen.

Morrill Tariff

A Civil War-era tariff that doubled taxes on imported goods to generate federal revenue for the war and protect domestic American industries.

Legal Tender Act of 1862

Federal legislation authorizing the U.S. government to issue paper currency known as greenbacks to stabilize the economy and fund the war effort.

Homestead Act of 1862

A federal law granting 160 acres of free public land in the West to individuals who settled on and improved the land for five years.

Morrill Land Grant College Act of 1862

Legislation transferring 30,000 acres of federal land per member of Congress to states for funding colleges focused on agriculture and mechanic arts.

Nouveau Riches

The class of newly wealthy industrialists and financiers emerging during the Gilded Age whose lavish spending patterns created social rivalry with traditionally wealthy families.

Jane Addams

A social worker who founded Hull House in Chicago in 1889 to offer educational programs, social services, and job training to working-class women and immigrants.

Hull House

A settlement house established in Chicago by Jane Addams that offered mentoring, education, and skills training to young women and new immigrants.

National Labor Union (NLU)

A labor organization established in 1866 that prioritized broad political and social reforms over direct collective bargaining and secured the passage of the Contract Labor Act.

Knights of Labor

A labor union founded by Uriah Smith Stevens that brought together both skilled and unskilled workers regardless of background to advocate for worker protection and reform.

Mary "Mother" Jones

A self-declared leader of the labor movement who spent decades organizing union strikes and campaigning for higher wages, shorter work hours, safe working conditions, and child labor restrictions.

Haymarket Square Riot

An 1886 rally in Chicago supporting an eight-hour workday that turned violent when a bomb killed a police officer, triggering a public backlash against labor unions and anarchists.

Homestead Strike

An 1892 labor dispute at Carnegie's steel plant near Pittsburgh between the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers and corporate guards from the Pinkerton Detective Agency.

Pullman Strike

An 1894 nationwide strike led by the American Railway Union against the Pullman Palace Car Company that paralyzed rail transportation in 27 states until federal troops intervened.

American Federation of Labor (AFL)

A national union federation created in 1886 by twenty-five craft unions and led by Samuel Gompers that admitted only skilled workers.

International Workers of the World (IWW)

A radical labor organization founded in Chicago in 1905, also known as the Wobblies, open to all workers across the world willing to oppose capitalism through direct action and strikes.