Captains of Industry or Robber Barons
Industry grew in the 19th century United States and had tremendous effects on
how modern business is made and the laws made to give workers more rights.
Industrialists of the 19th century are best defined as robber barons because of the
unsafe working conditions they provided their workers, they manipulated people to
their advantage, and they treated their workers unfairly. Workers would leave work
without fingers, industrialists manipulated businesses and people to get what they
wanted, and mistreated their employees.
The industrialists were robber barons because they didn’t provide safe working
conditions to their workers. Workers would leave their jobs without fingers, for
example in The Jungle the author said “ all the joints of his fingers might be eaten by
the acid, oone by one.” This shows there was no precautions when the employees
would handle dangerous substances therefore losing their fingers. Men would go
missing and no one knew where they went, little did anyone know they had fallen into
the vats. Paragraph 6 in The Jungle said “their peculiar trouble was that they fell into
the vats… sometimes they would be overlooked for days, till all but the bones of them
had gone out to the world as Durham’s Pure Leaf Lard!” The lack of attention given to
the vats and workers gives more reason to as why the industrialists are robber barons.
Industrialists should also be considered robber barons because they
manipulated people and businesses to get what they wanted. In Captains of Industry or
Robber Barons? background essay it says “In an effort to create monopolies, corner
markets, and increase profits these men often resorted to rather unscrupulous tactics.
These methods included manipulating the stock market , bribing politicians and
officeholders, cheating stockholders and ruining competition.” This shows how the
industrialists didn’t care who they had to use in order to get to the top of the industry.
Also, on Captains of Industry or Robber Barons? background essay it says “child labor
made up over 5 percent of the national labor forces.” This proves that the industrialists
used the fact that families were poor and had to make their kids work to their
advantage by employing as many kids as they could.
The industrialists of the 19th century were robber barons because they treated
their employees unfairly. While people like Rockefeller and Carnegie indulged in their
growing wealth their employees suffered the backbreaking labor of producing their
money. In the photo shown on Document set B it shows how the workers carried the
resources needed to keep the industrialists up. This proves they didn’t care what their
workers were going through as long as they kept getting richer. In Captains of Industry
or Robber Barons? background essay it says “Workers were treated badly by the
capitalists and their management organiz ations. Workers were often forbidden to
strike, paid very wages and forced to work very long hours.” This proves the
industrialists gave their employees no rights and bad wages even though they did very
hard jobs.
The industrialists of the 19th century were best defined as robber barons since
they had no care for their employees working conditions or safety doing nothing when
an employe injured themselves, they manipulated their way to the top and they treated
their workers unfairly.
