This document provides an overview of topics to be covered related to big business, labor, and industrialization after the US Civil War, including: 1) The growth of railroads across the US and their impact on travel, commerce, and related industries between 1860-1880. 2) The rise of large-scale industrial agriculture and whether small family farms could compete. 3) Major industrial figures of the period, often termed "Captains of Industry" or "Robber Barons," who dominated industries like railroads, oil, steel, and banking through consolidation and integration. 4) Key technologies and inventions such as the telegraph, telephone, typewriter, and sewing machine that enabled industrialization.

2. Big Business, Labor, and Industrialization
• Today we will:
• Take a closer look at the railroads
• Look at industrial and agricultural growth
• What was the Federal Government’s role during this period?
• Look at major figures of this wave of industrialization
• Evaluate key inventions of this period
• Next time we will:
• Continue from last time (beginning with Electricity)
• Talk about the Middle and Working classes
• Examine the responses to corporate growth and working conditions
• Look forward to next week: Urbanization

3. National Economy after the Civil War
• How did the Civil War impact the economy of the North?
• What about the South?
• What industries were hurt/helped?
• Did the wartime economy last long?
• Between the end of the war and 1900, what were some of the long
term effects of this economy?

4. Railroads 1860

5. Railroads - 1880

6. Railroads
• As we saw last week, the number and length of railroads crossing
the country exploded between 1860 and 1880.
• What did railroads do (in a literal sense)?
• How did this change travel?
• How did this change the economy?
• What becomes much more important after railroads dominate travel and
commerce?
• What other industries benefitted and grew (in part) to the
railroad boom?
• Pacific Railway Act (1862)
• How did the outbreak of the Civil War enable this act to be passed?
• What path was chosen?

7. Railroads (cont.)
• Transcontinental Railroad
• The Union Pacific set out from where?
• The Central Pacific set out from where?
• Who made up most of the labor force for each of these companies?
• Where did the two halves meet?
• Final spike was driven by former California Governor Leland Stanford
• Railroad companies were the first examples of “Big Business” and
were some of the first corporations (which allowed them to have
shares traded on the stock market).

9. Analyzing Images: Meeting of the
Transcontinental Railroad

10. Analyzing Images: Meeting of the
Transcontinental Railroad

11. Trains and Society
• What do railroads do to time?
• How does that change life?
• How does it change commerce?
• What did it mean for a town to get a
railroad?
• What if they didn’t?
• What happened in areas where there
were no towns?

12. Corporate/Industrial
Agriculture
Could small scale, family farmers/ranchers compete? How?

13. Captains of Industry or Robber Barons?
• The Vanderbilts: Railroads
• Cornelius “Commodore” (Father) and William H. (Son)
• Started in steamboat shipping, quickly moved into
railroads
• Cornelius passed on most of the control of his
businesses to William when he died.
• New York Central Railroad controlled all rail traffic
into and out of NYC, and significant networks
between NYC and Chicago across the industrialized
north.
• When Cornelius died, he was worth more money
than was held in the national treasury.
• Why does their last name sound familiar?

14. Oil and Gas
• John D. Rockefeller
• Founding member and leader of Standard Oil Company
• Raised in Cleveland, Ohio
• Obsessed with organization and efficiency
• Sought to control the entire industry
• Pioneered the concept of “horizontal integration?”
• What does that mean?
• Also pursued “vertical integration.”
• What does this mean?
• 1890 Sherman Anti-Trust Act
• Aimed at breaking up monopolies
• Why was it directed at trusts?
• Did it work?

15. Steel and Iron
• Andrew Carnegie
• Scottish immigrant
• Capitalized on new technologies for making steel
• Rose in wealth due to the massive amount of steel needed for
railroads and building projects
• In 1900 owned the largest industrial company in the world (20,000
employees)
• Production was achieved by shift-work
• After selling his company to the man on the next slide, devoted his life
to philanthropy
• Carnegie Hall
• Carnegie Libraries (over 2500)
• Morrilton (Left)
• Eureka Springs (Right)
• Carnegie-Mellon University

16. Banking and Industry
• J. Pierpont Morgan
• Son of a wealthy banker from England
• After college, put in charge of a new company
• Responsible for investing European money in American companies
• Bought as many railroad companies as he could
• Bought Pittsburgh Steel from Andrew Carnegie
• Continued to consolidate other steel companies
• Renamed them US Steel Company
• World’s first billion-dollar corporation with 168,000 employees
• Company continues on to this day
• Donated money to help found the University of Chicago

17. Big Business and Politics
• After the Civil War the Republican Party was increasingly tied to
big business
• Retained tariffs on imported/exported goods
• Legal Tender Act of 1862
• Established paper money printed by the Federal Government
• Takes control of printed money away from the states
• Homesteading
• How does this help industry?
• Morrill Land-Grant College Act of 1862
• How do these help?
• Federal approach was laissez-faire.
• States did more to regulate.

18. Major Technologies and Inventions
• Telegraphs take on a more significant role as they follow rail lines
• Crucial for coordinating rail systems
• Telephone (1875-1876) - Alexander Graham Bell
• Founded AT&T
• By 1895 more than 300,000 telephones in America
• Typewriters
• Become more widespread as more clerical work needs to be done
• Women often filled these positions, how did their pay differ than men?
• Sewing Machines
• Around since the 1790s, but more competition in the mid-to-late 1800s
• Facilitates the industrial use of sewing machines

19. Participation for Today
• Please take out a piece of paper
• Put your name on it
• Do you think the major figures in industry (such as Carnegie, the
Vanderbilts, or JP Morgan) are more “Captains of Industry,” or “Robber
Barons?”
• Why? Or why not?

20. Final Thoughts
• For next time:
• Be sure to cover the second half of Ch 17
• We will jump into the spread of electricity
• We will be looking at the lives of workers, changes in the middle and working
class, and responses to industrialization
• Feel free to let me know if you have any questions
• Please turn in your sheet for participation
• See you on next time.