Robber Barons were people who built a fortune by stealing money from the American people, and creating monopolies. The men of the 1800’s were Robber Barons. These men drove out their competition, treated their workers terribly, and created monopolies. Some Robber Barons at the time include, John D. Rockefeller, and Cornelius Vanderbilt. 7 percent of American people owned 90 percent of America’s wealth in total. Most of these people were Robber Barons who had a monopoly.
Vanderbilt started off in the steamboat industry as a young man, and was known as being fierce and ruthless. When Vanderbilt grew up, he created his monopoly in the railroad company. He closed off New York to any railroad company until they would give up and sell him the tracks around New York. Vanderbilt also built Grand Central station. Vanderbilt made millions of dollars each year off of the railroad company. Rockefeller was another Robber Baron. Rockefeller built “Rockefeller Center.” Rockefeller Center is a whole square full of commercial buildings and an ice rink, all owned by Rockefeller. Rockefeller is not
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The Robber Barons forced the workers to live in a town that the Robber Barons built, and they couldn’t leave. The reason they could not leave was because, when the workers came to the town they did not have very much money. The Robber Barons offered to buy them the house, but the worker would have to work in their factory, and pay them back. This means that the worker could not leave their job until they paid back the Robber Baron which took a very long time. Also within the factory there were many issues. The Robber Barons forced the workers to work very long hours for very little pay. The workers were kids from the age 6 to 13, and they were usually immigrants. The reason they hired immigrants was because they would take any money, so the Robber Barons payed them much less then if they were to hire a working class American