The capitalists who shaped post-Civil War industrial America were more the corrupt “robber barons.” They were corrupt because they treated the workers poorly, made huge houses that were only for themselves, and would keep some savings to themselves.
The workers in the monopolies were being treated very poorly. As stated in Document 1, “... as liveried carriages appear; so do barefooted children.” This proves that the children who were in families of the workers were not being paid as much were living a worse life. Because their families earned less money, they no longer had the same things as before. The reason why they earned less was because the gap between worker and owner was growing, causing the owner to lose the connection with his employees. Another example of the owners not treating the workers correctly was the Oat Meal Trust. This caused mills to be closed which, in turn, caused many workers to be let go. (Document 2) With the letting go of a large number of people, the people were now unable to support their families. This shows how little the owners thought about their workers because the owners didn’t think twice about the wellbeing of their employees before they were let go. …show more content…
(Document 4) One man in particular was Cornelius Vanderbilt. Vanderbilt had a home in Rhode Island that he used only for the summer. Building a home like this is like robbery because he stole the opportunity that a worker could have had and took it for himself. He took the opportunity from them because he was the owner of railways and the owners of monopolies did not pay their employees as much as they could have. This house shows that the owner had enough money in his business, but the workers that he had looked like they were