Robber Barons essays

Robber Barons essays During the nineteenth century there were many people who contributed to Americas growth. Most of these people were either considered robber barons or captains of industry. The captains of industry generally contributed to the country in honest, hard-working ways. The robber barons, however, schemed against the country, sometimes causing monopolies in order to achieve their great wealth. Examples of these are Jay Gould, George Pullman, and J.P. Morgan. The wealthy industrialists of the late nineteenth century were robber barons. Jay Gould was one of the most successful robber barons in the U.S. He was born on May 27, 1836 in Roxbury, New York. He mostly grew up very poor and had little education. In 1860 he began speculating in railroad stocks and soon became the director of the Erie Railroad. He began to sell public shares in the railroad for a greater value than they were worth, squandering millions of dollars from the U.S. people. Gould and James Frisk, an associate of his, were involved in a scheme in gold speculating that led to Black Friday, when a financial panic was caused in a abrupt drop in the price of gold. J.P. Morgan was born on April 17, 1837 in Hartford, Connecticut. At the age of 34 he became a partner in the New York City firm Drexel, later being named J.P. Morgan and Company. It grew to be one of the worlds most powerful houses. In 1895 he organized a committee to help the US Treasury which was on the verge of bankruptcy. Morgan formed the Federal Steele Company in 1898 and in 1901 he merged the company with others and formed the United States Steele Corporation, A federal committee investigated J.P. in 1912, believing he was involved in unfair monopolies. George Pullman can be either considered a captain of industry or a robber baron. Born in 1831 in Brocton, New York, he first invented the sleeping car for railroads which made traveling much more convienen...