Robber Barron or a Captain of Industry, Andrew Carnegie was a poor child at a very young age. Like every poor family, he needed to have a job to help support his Scottish family. He first started to work as a telegrapher and then he invested in railroads bridges and oil “derricks”. At first he started to make about two dollars a week as a Ohio telegraph company telegrapher. But then he started to work as a secretary telegraph officer, the minimum weekly wage for that was four dollars.

After saving enough money he went to Europe and he became wealthy as a bond salesman. What really made him rich from rags- to riches was when he founded the Pittsburgh’s Carnegie’s Steel Company.He made millions; he became the second richest man in the U.S at that time. Carnegie was known to be a philanthropist, due to the fact that he donated three- hundred fifty million dollars to charity library and school funds. He founded many schools and libraries; one school for example was the Carnegie Institute of Technology.

Carnegie is part Robber Barron and part Captain of Industry. He is a Robber Barron because he treated his workers very harshly. They had to work for more then ten hours a day in mines and caves, mining and prospecting for iron and coal. To add on about being a Robber Barron, he also gave them low wages whilst at the same time he increased their rent. Workers became ticked off by this hassle.

This made his workers even more poor, which lead to the dreadful, Homestead Strike of 1892. Worker’s rallied up a Pittsburgh steel mill; they had riots and protest against Carnegie’s low pay on workers. Carnegie himself was said to be a pacifist, a person who doesn’t want to fight. But Carnegie reacted by sending in federal troops into the protest. The rioters were then killed and many people lost their families. Carnegie is part Captain of Industry because he was very generous.

As said he donated a lot of money to charity and education. Even some of his money was donated to research in medicine. Carnegie him self quoted that “Pittsburgh sweetness and light. I hold this the noblest possible use of wealth.” This means that he wanted to split his wealth with poor people. Since he knew how it was to be like as a poor family, barely having anything to eat.

He was also part of Captain of Industry because he owned his own business. He owned the Pittsburgh Steel Company, which he founded himself. His company went to the very top, because of a new way to make steel. Which was way easier and cheaper, he made even more money. Another reason he was a Captain of Industry is because he was a good business leader that not benefited himself but because of his actions it shaped the United States into a more industrialized community. By the late eighteen hundreds his steel company was the world’s largest enterprise. This is how he got the nickname “Steel King”. (Company)

In conclusion, Andrew Carnegie was not only a Robber Barron but a Captain of Industry as well. As a Robber Barron he treated his workers harsh and he force them to live in a lifestyle full of poverty. While as a Captain he donated his money and helped America (steel for railroads and bridges). So basically Andrew Carnegie was neutral, he wasn’t just one of them. He was both, Robber Barron and Captain of Industry.