[APUSH 2] Gilded Age Vocabulary

Robber Barons

Industrialists of the late 19th-early 20th centuries who would do ANYTHING to get filthy rich

• Disgustingly, historically wealthy (richer than possible today)

Cornelius Vanderbilt

Railroad robber baron, and one of the wealthiest men in history

• Owned every major railroad in the entirety of the US

• Paid his workers VERY little compared to the vast wealth he owned

• Not uncommon for his workers to see wage cuts

• Vanderbilt owned the only bridge from going between NYC & NJ

  • Shut down bridge in both directions with a train full of 200 people  to make a guy sell him a competing railroad against him

• Since Vanderbilt owns the railroads, it makes it easier for America 

• Vanderbilt has a problem—there’s not enough customers using the railroads

  • He charges less for longer trips than shorter trips because more people (farmers) pay more

John D. Rockefeller

Owner of the Standard Oil Company, and was the wealthiest man in history (non-royalty)

• Known for never smiling or laughing

• Vanderbilt picks Rockefeller out of nowhere to help him; he offers to sell Rockefeller’s oil on his railroads, where they both make a lot of money together

Andrew Carnegie

Owner of US steel and a GREAT philanthropist (charitable person, generous with his money)

• Pittsburgh is where most of Carnegie’s factories are located

• Carnegie is a gopher for a local railroad guy & climbs his way up the railroad company’s hierarchy

• Civil War happens and Carnegie gets drafted into the Civil War, but pays someone to go instead of him for $300 (this isn’t legal today!!!)

  • The guy Carnegie paid off actually lived through the war

• Carnegie buys all the Bessemer steel & goes broke

• Builds his own steel factories

• Builds a giant suspension steel bridge over the Mississippi River & puts a toll on it (ships can actually pass underneath it); Carnegie goes broke

  • To prove that the bridge is stable, Carnegie goes across the bridge with a team of elephants, and it proves to the people that it’s safe

• Biggest steel manufacturer; NYC is built using Carnegie’s steel

• A strike breaks out at one of Carnegie’s steel factories while Carnegie is away

• Carnegie is called and says that the strike is going to be broken using mercenaries, and Carnegie says “do what you have to do”

• Mercenaries kill a handful of Carnegie’s workers and his factories open up again with much lower wages than before

• Carnegie writes that it is the job of the rich to give up their wealth and that it is an insult to die wealthy in one of his books before he dies

• He gives away a lot after his death

• Carnegie believed that if you were willing to work, you deserved money

JP Morgan

Banking robber baron; owner of General Electric—brought electricity to the United States

• SUPER ugly; had a squeaky voice, overweight most of his life, and had scars all over his nose

• Had a dad that was a self-made millionaire and said that JP Morgan was going to inherit his dad’s business

  • Does well with banking business, but wealth was handed to him

• JP Morgan asks Edison about his lightbulb and sponsors Edison in order for him to finish it

• NYC is the first city with light

• JP Morgan has a party at night and has a 60-light chandelier to surprise his guests

• Edison is scared of Tesla (and his invention of A/C)

• Edison invents the electric chair, hooks up the A/C to it, and electrocutes an elephant for a publicity stunt to show the dangers of A/C

  • Elephant dies BADLY (its eyes pop out)

• People hate Edison for this, and JP Morgan goes to Tesla

Laissez-Faire

When the government leaves businesses alone (capitalist system)

Monopoly

When one company dominates business and eliminates its competition

Trust

When several “competing” companies are owned by the same person

• John Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Company -> Shell/BP/Texaco

Sherman Anti-Trust Act

Law that outlawed monopolies and trusts; rarely enforced

• Implemented to satisfy the poorer people, but not enforced to help the rich

Horatio Alger

Wrote rags to riches stories about the Gilded Age

Social Darwinism

The idea that the wealthy are “most fit” to live in society

• The wealthy have traits that society wants to pass on

• Pale skin, blue eyes, blonde hair were viewed as superior/the purest (like the Aryan race??)

• White skin w/ brown hair & brown eyes would still be viewed as superior, but not as pure

• Large, perfectly round, & symmetrical skull houses a large brain (people wanted this!!)

• Africans were blessed with the ability to do labor, according to Social Darwinism

• Jewish people were at the very bottom of the “food chain” and weren’t seen as people according to Social Darwinism (lowest form of life; should be eliminated)

  • Jews had no homeland, and since they had no homeland, they were living off the land of other people, like parasites

• Origins of the Holocaust originated in America due to Social Darwinism (belief was spread around the world)

• Idiot = IQ classification (70-80 IQ)

• Carrie Buck got raped by her cousin at 14 (got pregnant too), and couldn’t testify against herself, so her cousin couldn’t be accused; legally an “idiot”

  • State of VA arrested Carrie Buck due to having sex outside of marriage and forced her to be sterilized

  • Blood tests confirmed that Buck’s cousin raped her

Granges

Farmer’s Unions

• Farmers need a union due to their items being distributed at high prices across railroads owned by Vanderbilt

• They wanted to protest against Vanderbilt’s high prices

• Farmers start to organize and form the Populist Party

Populist Party

Farmer’s party that eventually merged with the Democratic party, led by William Jennings Bryan

• William Jennings Bryan emerges as the Populist Party candidate and runs against the Robber Barons

• Democratic Voters = Rural Voters

• William Jennings Bryan makes multiple campaign speeches against the Robber Barons

• Robber Barons (Carnegie, Morgan, & Rockefeller; Vanderbilt is retired at this point) meet at JP Morgan’s house to talk about William Jennings Bryan, and they put money towards McKinley’s campaign

• Stereotype of wealthy people being Republicans starts from this

• McKinley beats Bryan twice

ICC (Interstate Commerce Commission)

Government agency that regulated the railroad

• Amtrak is the only interstate railroad today; the people own the railroad and US citizens pay taxes towards the railroad

• Amtrak runs a huge deficit every year to make public transportation more accessible to the poor (same thing with buses; and bus tickets should rise with gas, but they don’t)

Public Utility

Privately owned company that’s government-regulated

• PSE&G is used by everyone in town because it’s a government-regulated monopoly

• Cannot raise their rates unless they ask the government if they can

• Water Companies & Gas Companies are Public Utilities

AFL (American Federation of Labor)

Largest skilled labor union in the United States led by Samuel Gompers

• Every labor union wants more money

• Wanted 40 hours a week (8 hrs a day)

  • A work day was typically 12 hours, so they wanted to shorten this

• Predominantly white male labor union (these were the only people that could access the skills and teachings to do this

• More political influence than the IWW

IWW (Industrial Workers of the World)

Largest unskilled labor union in the US; very diverse

• Dishwashers, Busboys, Janitors, etc. (basically any job that didn't require any formal training to do well in)

• A lot of women & African-Americans were in this labor union

• More members than the AFL

Strike

When workers walk off a job in protest

Lockout

When a business won’t open because labor costs are too high

Scab

Someone who replaces a striking worker (worker on strike)

• IWW had more scabs than the AFL

• In the modern day, you may see giant inflatable rats, which means that the workers weren’t unionized

Collective Bargaining

Group negotiations between unions and ownership

• Example: All teachers all go to the Board of Ed to negotiate a contract for a raise

Yellow Dog Contract

When a worker signs a contract agreeing not to join a union

• Owners HATE unions because it causes them to lose money

• Workers got higher wages if they agreed to sign this contract

Blacklist

Groups of union organizers who could not get hired

• This wasn’t legal, and you could be charged with collusion

Homestead Strike, Pullman Strike, Haymarket Affair

Late 19th century strikes where the government favored owners over unions

• Homestead Strike = strike against Carnegie