Rockefeller and Carnegie Post

In History class this week, we learned about two well known monopolistic leaders named Rockefeller and Carnegie who helped to shape the way that workers were treated.  The essential question we were told to answer was,"How did the actions of monopolistic leaders such as Rockefeller and Carnegie effect the common worker?"  The answer to this question can be found in events such as the Homestead Strike, as well as the actions and results of Rockefeller and Carnegie.

John D. Rockefeller was an entrepreneur who owned one of the largest oil companies called Standard Oil, and he helped to revolutionize the way workers were treated as his company employed thousands of people due to its sheer size.  Rockefeller and created jobs through his business, and this provided people with work, benefitting many. However, overtime Rockefeller developed his business into a monopoly, meaning that he was one of the largest or only businesses in that industry.  This gave him the power to treat his employees worse and worse, though he did give back to the community through philanthropy, which is the giving away of millions of dollars for the advancement of education, medicine, and the sciences in general. Rockefeller founded the General Education Board through this phlanthropy, and he did good for the people because he believed that God gave him the power to make money, so he wanted to use it for the good of others.

Andrew Carnegie, though also a philanthropist, ran into more complications between him and his workers. carnegie used strike breakers against his workers during a notorious strike known as the Homestead strike. Homestead was a steel mill built by Carnegie in 1881, and it was an industrial superpower in the steel industry, but workers of Carnegie went on strike. Carnegie used strike breakers to stop the strike and get the mills up and running again, breaking a promise he made with the workers. Carnegie also had plans to destroy the workers union within his business, and a partner of his used pinkertons to stop the strike, which were basically members of a private military. Carnegie believed that giving back to the community was important, so he gave money to schools, particularly black schools. Both John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie helped to bring about a new age of industry, and with this revolution came unionization and rights for workers, along with better school systems for the general public.