As Black Friday 2024 finally arrives and shoppers across the country spend hours scouring the deals online and in stores, many Americans are wondering about the day's dark criminal history spanning centuries. You may not be familiar with it.
“The original term Black Friday actually comes from September 24, 1869,” financial advisor Brian Kuderna told FOX News Digital. “What happened on this day was a very famous market crash…The stock market fell more than 20% in one day.”
Kuderna added that the event was a “huge financial crime” in history, explaining how two notorious American financiers, Jay Gould and Jim Fisk, had a criminal plan to corner the gold market. He explained how he fabricated a story that led to many people being cornered and a panic spreading across the United States. bankruptcy.
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(Rob Stothard/Getty Images/File)
“They were the true 'robber barons' of the Gilded Age,” Kuderna said. “There was about $20 million of gold in circulation in the United States…so when Jay Gould and his friend Jim Fisk thought about this, they said, 'You know what? There's about $20 million in circulation. If the amount of gold was set at $20 million, if some really wealthy people with deep pockets wanted to buy up all that gold, they could effectively corner the market.
“They were both very wealthy,” Kuderna said. “They had a lot of shady deals in the past, and they said, 'You know what? Let's go out there and buy up all the gold we can and really corner this market.' .”
Gould and Fisk were planning to do just that, but they needed a little help from someone inside the government.
President Ulysses S. Grant was planning to release more gold into the economy and limit the amount of greenbacks (paper dollars) in circulation, which would cause the price of gold to fall and The plan of the criminal duo ends up failing.
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This illustration shows financier Jay Gould (left) trying to corner the gold market, represented by bulls and bears in a cage. On Black Friday in September 1869, his successor, President Ulysses S. Grant, restored the prevailing price of gold by having the U.S. Treasury sell $5 million in gold. It is shown that the money was stuffed into a bag and taken away. (Library of Congress/Carrier & Ives, 1869)
“They became friends with the president's brother-in-law and brought him into this plan,” Kuderna said. “They paid money and said, 'Why don't you get into the ear of your brother-in-law, the president, and get a commitment that he won't sell any more gold on the market?'”
The president listened to his brother-in-law, Abel Rathbone Corbin, and kept the gold out of the market for some time.
“By controlling the supply and shrinking the supply and concentrating it on just these two people, the price of gold has skyrocketed,” Kuderna said. “And at this time, Jay Gould and his investment partner Jim Fisk were cornering the market and trying to get as much money as they could.”
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James Fisk was featured as an illustration in Harper's Weekly around 1869. (Library of Congress)
Jay Gould is depicted in the 1800s. (Library of Congress/George Grantham Bain Collection)
Kuderna said President Grant quickly became uncomfortable with his brother-in-law's interest and ordered the sale of millions of dollars in gold, believing something “shady” was going on. Meanwhile, Gould and Fisk began hoarding gold.
When government gold hit the market on September 24, 1869, the price of gold plummeted almost immediately.
“The market will be flooded with gold. The price of gold will collapse, and at the same time, the price of the stock market will also collapse on what is now known as Black Friday,” Kuderna explained.
The stock market crash affected many people across the country, forcing some into bankruptcy.
Ulysses S. Grant was a West Point graduate who became the top general in the Army during the Civil War and later became President of the United States. (Stock Montage/Getty Images)
The next era in the dark history surrounding the term Black Friday began in Philadelphia in the mid-20th century.
“In the 1950s…between Thanksgiving and the following Saturday's Army-Navy football game, especially in Philadelphia, where the game was being played, the city was filled with football fans, tourists, and weekend shoppers,” Kuderna said. said. “And this was a time when the Philadelphia Police Department was really stretched to its limits and everyone was having to work overtime. They were just understaffed…There were a lot of reports of shoplifting, and only stores were… There were reports of a complete blowout…and that's when the term 'Black Friday' really started to gain attention.”
Kuderna explained that at this point the retailer changed the term from Black Friday to Big Friday.
“It takes away some of the negativity and the connotations of the name and puts more emphasis on sales and the excitement of the holiday season and kicking off with Big Friday,” he said. “Frankly, I wish the term stuck.”
The more recent background behind the term Black Friday is a financial interpretation that goes beyond its historically dark origins.
“The most recent knowledge of this term goes back to the ’80s, when the accountants of all the big retailers said, ‘Okay, before Thanksgiving, we were probably operating at a loss, or we were operating at a loss. But then this Friday, after Thanksgiving, all sales will go through this big boom.''Then we'll go from being in the red to being in the black. “It will be,” Kuderna said. That's Black Friday as we know it today.
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Even though Black Friday has evolved into a bright highlight of the year, symbolizing the start of the holiday shopping season, Kuderna noted the importance of understanding the day's dark history.
“I want people to know where it actually comes from,” he said. “I think it's important to know where we're coming from so we don't make the mistake again.”
