During the Gilded Age, there was great debate as to whether the rich businessmen should be considered "captains of industry" (brilliant businessmen who did amazing things for the country) or "robber barons" (evil and corrupt businessmen who were greedy and selfish at the expense of the workers and consumers).
Read each of the following actions taken by these businessmen and place it in the category where you think it fits best - is it something that a brilliant and helpful businessman ("captain of industry") would do or is it something that an evil, corrupt, greedy, and selfish businessman ("robber baron") would do?
Although there are no "correct answers" because it is open to interpretation depending on your perspective, the answer key shows the most common answers. If you sort them according to the most common answers, you should end up with 8 actions in the Captains of Industry category and 8 actions in the Robber Barons category.