Gilded Age People Flashcards
Samuel Gompers
Founder/President of the American Federation of Labor (AFL). He improved working conditions. (Fought for workers rights and labor laws).
Ida Tarbell
Journalist and writer. Best known for the exposure of the Standard Oil Company. “The History of the Standard Oil Company”- raised public awareness about the dangers of monopolies.
Booker T. Washington
African-American leader and educator. Fought for equality through education and economic self-resilience.
Eugene V. Debs
Founded the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). Fought for workers rights. -Labor strikes -Socialist Party of America
Cornelius Vanderbilt
Built a vast railroad and steamship empire. Created a network of railroads. Helped transform Americas transportation, fueling economic growth, and expanding trade.
Andrew Carnegie
He founded the Carnegie Steel Company. He dedicated much of his wealth to funding education. Wanted the rich to use their wealth for the betterment of soicety.
John D. Rockefeller
Co-founded the Standard Oil Company -monopolistic practices
J.P. Morgan
He helped to achieve railroad rate stability and discouraged overly chaotic competition in the East. -Reorganized struggling businesses
Henry Frick
Worked under Andrew Carnegie and did his dirty work to expand Carnegie Steel. -robber baron -exploitation
Bessemer Process
A cheap and efficient process for making steel -Carnegie’s Steel Company used this.
Laissez-faire
A policy of minimum governmental interference in the economic affairs of individuals and society.
Horizontal Integration
The merging of companies that make similar products.
Vertical Integration
a company controls different stages along the supply chain.
Social Darwinism
holding that a system of unrestrained competition will ensure the survival of the fittest.
Trust
Participants in a trust turned their stock over to a group of trustees—people who ran the separate companies as one large corporation. In return, the companies were entitled to dividends on profits earned by the trust.
Monopoly
A situation in which only one seller controls the production, supply, or pricing of a product for which there are no close substitutes.
Sherman Antitrust Act
A law, enacted in 1890, that was intended to prevent the creation of monopolies by making it illegal to establish trusts that interfered with free trade.
Collective Bargaining
The process in which working people, through their unions, negotiate contracts with their employers to determine their terms of employment, including pay, benefits, hours, leave, job health and safety policies, ways to balance work and family, and more.
Melting Pot
A mixture of people from different cultures and races who blend together by abandoning their native languages and cultures.
Robber Baron
an American capitalist who became wealthy through exploitation
