Captains Of Industry: The Development Of Big Business During The Gilded Age

The Gilded Age was the period between the Civil war and World War I that expressed the idea that everything that Glitters is not gold. The Gilded Age was the era of rapid industrialization in America which resulted in the increase of jobs. This period is known as the Gilded age because it alludes to the idea that things on the surface were not as amazing as it seemed to be, and underneath it was very corrupt. The Gilded age represented a period of economic, political, and social freedom and opportunity that mostly benefited the wealthy, but at the expense of working class, minorities, and immigrants who did not receive the same benefits. The introduction of the Gilded age resulted in many problems for citizens such as the working condition

Businesses began to grow due to the increase of technological innovation such as the railroad, Western expansion, and the industrialist who made them a success. Mass production, efficiency were the main goals of these booming industries as a result of the amount of abundant capital, and growing market that caused for a great need for unskilled, and semi-skilled laborers to work in the factories. Industrialist were known as “Captains of Industry” because of the great success of their businesses that helped the economy while also creating new jobs, and also known as “Robber barons” because they were often selfish, greedy, and did things for their own benefit without caring how it would affect the economy or workers. Competition was a big part of big business between the industrialist to see who’s business was the strongest, and exhibited true social darwinism which was the belief of survival of the fittest, in America. Urban labor increased by 400% by 1890 which lead to the start of horrific labor violence, and terrible working conditions. Industrialist would increase the amount of hours for workers from about ten to eighteen hours, and decrease their pay. There were not really any safety conditions or protection offered for workers during this time, and

Political machines had a big role in manipulating elections, and they even had a strategies to make sure the elections swayed in their favor. The machines would use forms of bribery, intimidation, or do kind things such as paying your bills in exchange for your vote on a certain candidate. During the Gilded Age secret ballots did not exist so it was simple for political machines to find out who you voted for, and if you did not vote for their candidate they made your life really difficult. Often if you voted for the wrong person political machines would cause you to be evicted from your home, fired from your job, and then blacklisted so there was no way you could get a job. Political machines would make it so that any unqualified man could be elected as President of the United States, these Presidents will be known as the “forgettable Presidents.” There were many other instances of political corruption such as the Credit Mobilier scandal of 1872 which was a joint stock company organized to build the union pacific railroad scandal that exposed government officials for accepting bribes. The Tweed ring was another form of political corruption which was a group of corrupt politicians