Industrial Revolution & Labor Movement Flashcards
Cornelius Vanderbilt
Cornelius Vanderbilt was born on May 27, 1794, in the Port Richmond area of Staten Island, New York. He began a passenger ferry business in New York harbor with one boat, then started his own steamship company, eventually controlling Hudson River traffic. He also provided the first rail service between New York and Chicago. When he died in 1877, Vanderbilt had amassed the largest fortune accumulated in the U.S. at that time. Vanderbilt is deemed one of America’s leading businessmen, and is credited for helping to shape the present-day United States.
John Rockefeller
American industrialist John D. Rockefeller was born July 8, 1839, in Richford, New York. He built his first oil refinery near Cleveland and in 1870 incorporated the Standard Oil Company. By 1882 he had a near-monopoly of the oil business in the U.S., but his business practices led to the passing of antitrust laws. Late in life, Rockefeller devoted himself to philanthropy. He died in 1937.
J. P. Morgan
Born on April 17, 1837, in Hartford, Connecticut, J.P. Morgan would later become one of the most famous financiers in business history. In 1871, Morgan began his own private banking company, which later became known as J.P. Morgan & Co., one of the leading financial firms in the country. Morgan died on March 31, 1913, in Rome, Italy. He was hailed as a master of finance at the time of his death, and continues to be considered one of the country’s leading businessmen.
During his career, his wealth, power, and influence attracted a lot of media and government scrutiny. During the late 1800s and even after the turn of the century, much of the country’s industries were in the hands of a few powerful business leaders, especially Morgan. He was criticized for creating monopolies by making it difficult for any business to compete against his. Morgan dominated two industries in particular – he helped consolidate railroad industry in the East and formed the United States Steel Corporation in 1901.
Andrew Carnegie
Andrew Carnegie was born on November 25, 1835, in Dunfermline, Scotland. After moving to the United States, he worked a series of railroad jobs. By 1889 he owned Carnegie Steel Corporation, the largest of its kind in the world. In 1901 he sold his business and dedicated his time to expanding his philanthropic work, including the establishment of Carnegie-Mellon University in 1904.
Transcontinental Railroad
In 1862, the Pacific Railroad Act chartered the Central Pacific and the Union Pacific Railroad Companies, and tasked them with building a transcontinental railroad that would link the United States from east to west. Over the next seven years, the two companies would race toward each other from Sacramento, California on the one side and Omaha, Nebraska on the other, struggling against great risks before they met at Promontory, Utah, on May 10, 1869.
In 1865, after struggling with retaining workers due to the difficulty of the labor, Charles Crocker (who was in charge of construction for the Central Pacific) began hiring Chinese laborers. By that time, some 50,000 Chinese immigrants were living on the West Coast, many having arrived during the Gold Rush. This was controversial at the time, as the Chinese were considered an inferior race due to pervasive racism. The Chinese laborers proved to be tireless workers, and Crocker hired more of them; some 14,000 were toiling under brutal working conditions in the Sierra Nevada by early 1867. (By contrast, the work force of the Union Pacific was mainly Irish immigrants and Civil War veterans.)
2nd Industrial Revolution
The Second Industrial Revolution, also known as the Technological Revolution, was a phase of the larger Industrial Revolution corresponding to the latter half of the 19th century until World War I. It is considered to have begun with Bessemer steel in the 1860s and culminated in mass production and the production line.
Labor Unions
an organized association of workers, often in a trade or profession, formed to protect and further their rights and interests.
Knights of Labor
The Knights of Labor began as a secret society of tailors in Philadelphia in 1869. The organization grew slowly during the hard years of the 1870s, but worker militancy rose toward the end of the decade, especially after the great railroad strike of 1877, and the Knights’ membership rose with it. Grand Master Workman Terence V. Powderly took office in 1879, and under his leadership the Knights flourished; by 1886 the group had 700,000 members. Powderly dispensed with the earlier rules of secrecy and committed the organization to seeking the eight-hour day, abolition of child labor, equal pay for equal work, and political reforms including the graduated income tax.
Terence Powderly
Terence Vincent Powderly was an Irish-American politician and labor union leader, best known as head of the Knights of Labor in the late 1880s. A lawyer, he was elected mayor of Scranton, Pennsylvania for six years.
Haymarket Square Bombing
On May 4, 1886, a labor protest rally near Chicago’s Haymarket Square turned into a riot after someone threw a bomb at police. At least eight people died as a result of the violence that day. Despite a lack of evidence against them, eight radical labor activists were convicted in connection with the bombing. The Haymarket Riot was viewed a setback for the organized labor movement in America, which was fighting for such rights as the eight-hour workday. At the same time, the men convicted in connection with the riot were viewed by many in the labor movement as martyrs.
American Federation of Labor
he American Federation of Labor (AFL) was a national federation of labor unions in the United States. It was founded in Columbus, Ohio, in May 1886 by an alliance of craft unions disaffected from the Knights of Labor, a national labor association.
Samuel Gompers
Samuel Gompers was an early labor leader, first in his own union and later as president of the American Federation of Labor. As its president nearly continuously between 1886 and 1924, Gompers led the labor movement in achieving solid gains for workers. He maintained a focused view of trade unionism, believing that unions should concentrate on better collective bargaining agreements and legislation affecting labor, while avoiding broad social issues.
Sherman Anti-Trust Act 1890
The Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 was the first measure passed by the U.S. Congress to prohibit trusts. It was named for Senator John Sherman of Ohio, who was a chairman of the Senate finance committee and the Secretary of the Treasury under President Hayes. Several states had passed similar laws, but they were limited to intrastate businesses. The Sherman Antitrust Act was based on the constitutional power of Congress to regulate interstate commerce.
Monopoly
the exclusive possession or control of the supply or trade in a commodity or service.
Trust
Commercial organization managed by appointed trustees (who hold the title to the business’ property) for the benefit of one or more beneficiaries. A business trust is treated as a legal entity by the tax authorities and must have (1) a business purpose, and (2) must function as a business.
