Key Terms

Great Railroad Strike of 1877
First major nationwide labor strike in U.S. history; erupted after railroad wage cuts during an economic depression and was crushed by state militias and federal troops, signaling government alignment with big business over labor.

McCormick Reaper
Mechanized farming machine that dramatically increased agricultural productivity; its mass production symbolized industrial efficiency and contributed to the decline of skilled labor.

Gilded Age
Late 19th-century era marked by rapid industrial growth, extreme wealth inequality, political corruption, and the contrast between immense fortunes and widespread poverty.

Robber Barons
Derogatory term for powerful industrialists and financiers accused of exploiting workers, manipulating markets, and corrupting politics to amass vast wealth.

Cornelius Vanderbilt
Railroad and shipping magnate who consolidated rail lines and exemplified corporate power and wealth accumulation during the Gilded Age.

John D. Rockefeller
Founder of Standard Oil who used horizontal integration and trusts to dominate the oil industry, becoming the wealthiest American of his era.

**Andrew Carnegie back.

J. P. Morgan
Powerful banker who organized massive corporate consolidations, including U.S. Steel, and symbolized the dominance of finance capital.

Social Darwinism
Ideology applying “survival of the fittest” to society, arguing that wealth and inequality were natural and that government aid to the poor was harmful.

Strikebreakers
Workers hired by employers to replace striking laborers; often protected by police, militias, or private forces like the Pinkertons to undermine unions.

Haymarket Riot (1886)
Labor protest in Chicago advocating the eight-hour day that turned violent after a bomb killed police; backlash linked unions to radicalism and weakened the labor movement.

American Federation of Labor (AFL)
Federation of skilled craft unions focused on practical goals—higher wages, shorter hours, safer conditions—using conservative tactics rather than radical reform.

Eugene Debs
Labor organizer and socialist leader who led the Pullman Strike, was imprisoned for defying a federal injunction, and later became a major Socialist Party figure.

William Jennings Bryan
Democratic orator and presidential candidate who championed free silver and attacked the gold standard as harmful to farmers and workers.

Gold Standard Act (1900)
Federal law placing the United States officially on the gold standard, ending major debate over bimetallism and favoring creditors and business interests.