Robber Barons 1800s

American businessmen, of the 1800’s, built America to be one of the greatest superpowers in the world. To start, businessmen of the 1800s consisted of men like John D. Rockefeller, Cornelius Vanderbilt and Andrew Carnegie. Some of these men were split by how they got their money; Captains of Industry and Robber Barons. Captains of Industry were business leaders that helped the nation in a positive way. On the other hand, Robber Barons were men that shrewd capitalists, swindled the poor and benefitted for themselves. Ultimately, American businessmen of the 1800’s may have built America, but most of them were Robber Barons because men like Carnegie swindled his workers and Rockefeller’s monopoly. One of the biggest businessmen in the 1800’s was John D. Rockefeller. To begin, he started the oil company, Standard Oil,

To start, Andrew Carnegie revolutionized steel production in the U.S as he used methods that were faster and easier to make steel, but Andrew Carnegie would have been nothing if it was not for his workers. Carnegie tried to lower his employees’ wages and he is just swindling his workers that, no offense, are poor because they are working for a steel company that have to lower their wages. One incident happened in 1892 when employees in Homestead went on strike after Carnegie tried to lower their wages. In document 3, the author states,” When the company tried to lower wages at a Carnegie steel plant in Homestead, Pennsylvania, the employees objected”(Doc, 3). Carnegie tried to deprive his employees’ of their wages for himself. He is trying to benefit himself more than the economy, meaning that Andrew Carnegie was more of a Robber Baron than a Captain of Industry. To end, Andrew Carnegie may have revolutionized America’s steel production, but the way he did that forces us to believe that he was more of a Robber Baron than a Captain of