During the mid to late 19th century, the term “Robber Baron” came into use. It was used to describe capitalist men who ran big businesses and acquired their vast fortunes from unethical business practices that were eventually made illegal. The unethical practices they took part in included exploiting workers, often times, including children, with low pay and long, hard hours in unacceptable working conditions, influencing government and elections thus furthering the corruption of the government, buying out competitors and often intimidating competitors into selling their company. These men took advantage of the fact that no laws had been created to protect laborers from exploitation. The leader of the company could do what they wanted, and
