Business and Labor in the Industrial Era (1860-1900)

Vocabulary flashcards covering major business concepts, technological innovations, prominent figures, legislation, and labor movement events from Chapter 16.

The Gilded Age

An era between 1865 and 1900, named after a novel by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner, characterized by political corruption, financial speculation, and rapid industrial transformation.

Big Business

A term commonly used to refer to giant corporations that dominated the late nineteenth-century economy through modern organizational models, mass production, and national market reach.

Second Industrial Revolution

A wave of economic expansion beginning in the mid-nineteenth century centered in the United States and Germany, driven by modern transportation and communication, electrical power, and the application of scientific research to industrial production.

Bonanza farms

Giant corporate-owned agricultural enterprises covering at least 3,000 acres, run by college-educated professionals and utilizing mechanized equipment and seasonal migrant labor to harvest cash crops.

Alexander Graham Bell

The inventor who patented the telephone in 1876 and established the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) to manufacture devices and long-distance communication lines.

Thomas Alva Edison

A prolific American inventor who established an invention factory in Menlo Park, New Jersey, and created key technologies including the phonograph, long-lasting electric lightbulb, and motion-picture camera.

George Westinghouse

The inventor of the railway air brake who established the Westinghouse Electric Company and developed the first alternating-current (AC) electric system in 1886.

Nikola Tesla

A Croatian immigrant who invented the alternating-current motor in 1887 and sold the plans to George Westinghouse.

Pacific Railway Act of 1862

Federal legislation authorizing the construction of the first transcontinental rail line by granting land and monetary loans to the Union Pacific Railroad and Central Pacific Railroad companies.

Hell on Wheels

Mobile railroad construction camps featuring tents for saloons, dance halls, gambling, and prostitution that moved along with crews laying track across the West.

Corporation

A legal entity that separates the ownership of an enterprise from the management of its operations, allowing companies to raise capital by selling shares of stock.

Horizontal integration

A business strategy in which a dominant corporation buys or forces out most of its competitors within the same industry.

Vertical integration

An economic strategy where a single business owns and controls all stages of production, refinement, and distribution rather than depending on external firms or middlemen.

Monopoly

A business enterprise that grows so large that it controls an entire industry, eliminating market competition.

Standard Oil Trust

A corporate arrangement created by John D. Rockefeller in 1882 in which stockholders of over thirty companies transferred their shares in trust to Rockefeller and eight other trustees in exchange for trust certificates.

Sherman Anti-Trust Act

An 1890 federal law declaring illegal any efforts to monopolize industries or restrain trade, though its vague language initially rendered it toothless.

Holding company

A corporation formed solely to control other companies by owning a majority of their stock certificates, producing no goods directly.

Carnegie Steel Company

The world's largest industrial company by 1900, established by Andrew Carnegie, which dominated steel production through modern technology, continuous innovation, and vertical integration.

U.S. Steel Corporation

The world's first billion-dollar corporation, formed in 1901 by financier J. Pierpont Morgan after purchasing Andrew Carnegie's steel enterprises and consolidating related firms.

The Gospel of Wealth

An 1889 essay by Andrew Carnegie arguing that the accumulation of wealth by capable individuals benefited society, but that wealthy individuals had a duty to administer their fortunes for public good.

Morrill Tariff

An 1861 act passed by Congress that doubled tax rates on imported items to protect American manufacturers and raise revenue.

Homestead Act of 1862

Federal law offering 160 acres of public land for free to citizens who agreed to settle on and improve the property for five years.

Morrill Land-Grant College Act of 1862

Federal legislation transferring public land to states to fund colleges offering technical training in agriculture and mechanic arts.

Laissez-faire

An economic policy characterized by non-intervention and minimal government regulation of private business practices, wages, and working conditions.

Hetty Green

An investor known as the Queen of Wall Street who accumulated a huge fortune through real estate and railway investments while maintaining extreme personal frugality.

Hull House

A settlement house in Chicago founded in 1889 by Jane Addams to assist immigrants in transitioning to American urban life.

Great Railroad Strike of 1877

The nation's first nationwide labor uprising, triggered by widespread wage cuts on rail lines, which resulted in widespread violence and required federal troops to suppress.

Sand-Lot Incident

An 1877 San Francisco meeting in support of striking rail workers that escalated into violent attacks on Chinese laborers, sparking an anti-Chinese political movement.

Chinese Exclusion Act

Federal legislation passed in 1882 banning all immigration of Chinese laborers to the United States for ten years.

National Labor Union (NLU)

A federation of craft unions established in 1866 that advocated for an eight-hour workday, greenbackism, and equal voting rights for women and African Americans.

Knights of Labor

A national labor organization led by Terence V. Powderly that opened membership to all workers regardless of skill, race, or gender (excluding Chinese), seeking to reform the wage system.

Mother Jones

The popular name of Mary Harris Jones, an Irish-born union activist who organized coal miners, led strikes, and campaigned against child labor for decades.

Haymarket Riot (1886)

A violent labor protest in Chicago's Haymarket Square where a bomb blast killed several police officers, resulting in the trial and conviction of seven anarchist leaders and heightening hostility toward labor unions.

American Federation of Labor (AFL)

An alliance of autonomous craft unions founded in 1886 and led by Samuel Gompers, focusing on tangible economic gains such as higher wages, shorter hours, and better working conditions.

Homestead Steel Strike (1892)

A violent confrontation at Carnegie's steel mill in Homestead, Pennsylvania, triggered by chief executive Henry Clay Frick's lockout to smash the craft union.

Pullman Strike (1894)

A nationwide railroad dispute led by Eugene V. Debs and the American Railway Union against the Pullman Palace Car Company, which halted midwestern rail traffic until federal troops intervened.

International Workers of the World (IWW)

A radical revolutionary labor union founded in 1905 in Chicago, known as the Wobblies, which sought to unite all workers to overthrow capitalism and establish worker-managed syndicates.