Colonial America Essay

Ever since the colonization period in the 1600s, many settlers had come to North America as a land of opportunity. As civilizations became developed in America, many will see that this hope will be realized. After the Civil War and towards the end of the 19th century, America will have became an industrial empire, creating the term “millionaires.” With the discovery of new raw materials and the enhancement of the technological era, many people took on the jobs of becoming businessmen. People such as John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, and J.P. Morgan, invested their lives and money into creating corporations that either thrived or died. The ones who did manage to make it big, many of whom were owners of the major railroads, factory bosses,
However, after the booming rise of advancement in technology, such as the invention of the Bessemer Process that allowed for the mass production of steel, many corporations spurred from the once tiny factories. Conveniently, around the 1820s to the 1870s America experienced the second wave of immigration that brought many people whom were seeking jobs. Business owners saw this as a great opportunity to have an abundant amount of workers that were willing to work long hours for little pay. Despite many business owners claiming that their factories were run with the utmost respect of the worker and had no intention of any manipulative gains (as stated in Thomas Alva Edison's, owner of the Edison Laboratory, letter), the reality of the average worker's life was strenuous. The worker that worked 12 hours a day, seven days a week, lived in fear of losing their job because the worker needed the factory more than the factory needed the worker. Contrary to the reality, Russell H. Conwell had stated that the enterprises that made the most money were run by the most honest men. Had factory owners who claimed that the worker was the most important factor of running a factory remained true to their word, the degree of exploitation of workers would not have been so high. William Graham Sumner summed up that the wealth gained by the enterprise owners were for only