Black Friday refers to two different Fridays in the history of the United States, each of which led to a financial emergency. The first Black Friday was on Sept. 24, 1869. Financiers Jay Gould and James Fisk had caused the price of gold to rise sharply by buying large amounts of it in New York City. They planned to then sell their gold for a big profit. The rise in gold prices caused a financial panic. To end the panic, President Ulysses S. Grant ordered the U.S. Treasury to sell $4 million of the government’s gold reserves. The sale caused the price of gold to fall sharply. Many people who had speculated on the rising price lost heavily, but Gould and Fisk made about $11 million. Gould had been warned of the Treasury’s intentions and sold his gold before the crash. Fisk shared in Gould’s profits and refused to honor contracts he had made to buy gold at high prices.
The second Black Friday was on Sept. 19, 1873. On this day, the New York Stock Exchange reported the collapse of the investment banking firm of Jay Cooke & Company. The company floundered after investing too heavily in railroad securities. Its failure affected the entire stock market. The resulting Panic of 1873 led to a major depression that lasted most of the decade. It was the worst economic crisis in U.S. history up to that time.
In the late 1900’s, the term “Black Friday” came to describe the popular shopping day following the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States. In Australia, the term sometimes refers to the “Black Friday” bushfires of 1939.
