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14 Cards in this Set

  • Front
  • Back

Leland Stanford

• 1/4 big financial bankers of the Central Pacific Railroad, other 3 being Charles Crocker, Mark Hopkins, and Collis P. Huntington


• Built empire thru the Gold Rush


• Supported building R.R in California


Governor and senator California - Heavily used Chinese Laborers as a workforce while constructing the R.R


* Improved nat'l transportation, communication and connection through RR

Collis P. Huntington

• 1/4 financial backers of the CP Railroad


• contributed to the Southern Pacific Railroad and the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad


• Made the towns of Huntington, WV and Newport News, VA into cities


* Like the other backers, his railroads connected once-isolated communities, stimulated rural econs, and helped in the rapid industrialization of America while making him immensely rich in the process.

Cornelius Vanderbilt

• 2nd richest American ever


• Orig got $ through steamboat industry: opened a populist steamboat line to compete w/ the monopoly; the monopoly paid him tons of $ to stop competing and he got rich


• Later entered RR industry & purchased several RR companies, forming a massive corp


• Donated $ to found Vanderbilt University


• owned more than $2,000,000,000 in today’s money


* Shows how outrageously rich people got through possibly corrupt business practices. Vast econ disparity.

Alexander Graham Bell

• Invented the telephone (1876)


• Made advancements in aeronautics and hydrofoils


• Taught Helen Keller


• Submitted telephone patent the same day as another guy; no one knows who got there first


*Instant voice communication to anywhere in the country became possible and revolutionized society.

Thomas Edison

• Inventor. held 1000s of patents in 4 countries


• invented the phonograph (sound recording device), fluoroscope, two-way telegraph, video camera, and the electric lightbulb


• did not actually invent the lightbulb; Nikola Tesla did, but he ripped off the design and then made it better so he’d get away w/ it


* Influenced many other inventors and his inventions have helped many other ones be developed too that progressed civilization.

Andrew Carnegie

• Created Carnegie Steel Co, which got him rich


• Eventually sold the company to J.P. Morgan for $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$


• Financed the building of NY’s Carnegie Hall


• Offered $20 million to the Philippines so they could buy independence (it didn't work)


*company highlighted many of the problems w/ society in the Gilded Age, such as business corruption and wealth inequality.

John D. Rockefeller

• Founded Standard Oil (1870)


• Richest man in the world at the time


• Horizontal integration (alliance to monopolize industry/market) = control of 90-95% of US oil industry


* Rockefellers’ success from humble beginnings, embodied the term “the Gilded Age”. Although he worked hard for his money, he did so by crushing the chances of others who were trying to do the same. Various Rockefeller-funded charities continue to make important contributions in the philanthropic field today.

J.P Morgan

• finance/banking industries; monopoly over banks


• merged his company w/ Carnegie’s steel company


• he stepped in to personally end the Panic of 1907, which could have destroyed the U.S. econ


* The fact that a single man had enough financial power to save the US econ displays faults in the U.S' gov't/econ. His practice of building monopolies was also a perfect example of the nasty business practices of the era.

Samuel Gompers

• 1886-1924 (except 1895)first and longest serving prez of AFL


• advocated craft/trades unionism= restricted mem'ship to wage earners and grouped workers based on their trade


• believed unionism that focused on econ (not political) reform =best way of securing workers’ rights/welfare


• good to have an indep poli platform/ get endorsement from existing political parties


grew to largest/most influential labor fed in the world under his leadership (50,000 into 1886 to 3 million in 1924)


* shifted American unionism from social issues and towards issues of wages, benefits, hours, and working conditions

Union Pacific Railroad

• Commissioned by congress @ beginning of Civil War to ensure connection w/ CA + resources
• Loans on mile wide area around set track route
• Credit Mobilier Co. part of UPRR, gains fraudulent profit
• mostly irish immigrants working


Successfully connected w/ Central Pacific in Promontory Summit, Utah 1869


• First RR in US to connect both coasts of US


Helped connect w/ Asian trade to West coast


* Revolutionized US domestic econ by connecting two endpoints together

Central Pacific Railroad

• 1861 by the Big 4


• Financed by Pacific Railroad Act of 1862 and the Big Four


• Used cheap/ expendable Chinese labor to build 689 miles


* Ended the American frontier by bringing a wave of immigration that in turn led to the development of industry and agriculture in the west

Gospel of Wealth

• essay by Andrew Carnegie in 1889


• described responsibility of rich people giving back to society.


• accumulation of wealth= beneficial to society and gov't should take no action to stop it. rich =trustees of their money, holding it until proper public uses could be discovered.


• Some business owners of the 1800s believed philanthropy=responsibility of the wealthy and gave things such as uni, libraries and museums.


• Some saw it as a way for the elite to relieve themselves from guilt.


* an excuse to dismiss the disparity on the fault of the poor, thus slowing social reforms to benefit the common man and instead lead to poli atmosphere in favor of business.

Haymarket Riot

• May 4th 1886


• People gathered in Chigo’s Haymarket Square for a labor demonst'n supporting populist ideals


• by Knights of Labor


• Anarchists threw dynamite @ police standing by


• AAR= gunfight; 7 police officers and 4 civilians died


• 8 of the anarchists were put on trial, none of them had actually thrown the bomb


• all sentenced to death, but two= pardoned


• trial was criticized for being incorrectly executed


* bombing discouraged upper-class employers from appealing to the demands of AFL b/c they considered some of the laborers to be violent anarchists. It gave the union a bad rep.

American Federation of Labor

• First fed of labor unions in the US, est in 1886


• Broke off of the Knights of Labour


• Samuel Gompers=president


• Org worker strikes/ protests


• ended in 1955 when merged w/ the Congress of Industrial Organizations


* first major union in US history and paved the way for future unions to represent and give a voice to the unrepresented working class a practice that continues today.