Captain Or Robber?

This week in class we got the topic of Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller. We watched a series of videos with many topics concerning Carnegie and Rockefeller. The class split up into four groups and each group focused on one category while watching the videos. The four categories were: Main Ideas, Key People, Important Events, and Essential Terms. My group was assigned Main Ideas. We took notes on what we felt was the most important topics covered in the videos. Then the class was split up into two groups. Half of the class read a biography on John D. Rockefeller and the other half read a biography on Andrew Carnegie. After we all watched the videos and read over our notes and the biography each of the four groups came up with what they thought would be the essential question for this activity. The winning essential question was "Should Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller be classified as Robber Barons or Captains of Industry?"

I believe that Carnegie is a captain of industry and Rockefeller is a robber baron. I think this because robber barons were people who bribed government officials, hired personal army's, treated workers poorly, destroyed rival business and were seen as corrupt, cruel, and unsportsmanlike. Rockefeller fits this description perfectly. Rockefeller offered to buy out his rival companies oil company railroads, drilling, sales personnel, and oil refineries. This shows that Rockefeller is a robber baron because he is deliberately trying to take his rival companies out of competition. A captain of industry is defined as "a business leader whose means of amassing a personal fortune contributes positively to the country in some way." I think that Carnegie is a captain of industry because he believed in rewarding workers by recognizing their talent/hard work and promoting them in the ranks of management. A robber baron wouldn't treat workers as well. Also Carnegie spent excess amounts of money on public needs, and education. He donated millions of dollars to advanced education. Carnegie does his in an effort to help his country like a good captain of industry would.