The Black Friday is the term for a gold panic on September 24, 1869, which triggered a financial crisis in the United States. It was the result of a conspiracy between two investors, Jay Gould, later joined by his partner James Fisk, and Abel Corbin, a small time speculator who had married Virginia (Jennie) Grant, the younger sister of President Ulysses S. Grant. They formed the Gold Ring to corner the gold market and force up the price of the metal on the New York Gold Exchange. The scandal took place during the Grant Presidency. The Secretary of the Treasury, George S. Boutwell, had a policy to sell Treasury gold at biweekly intervals for a sinking fund to pay off the national debt. Along with other, non-routine gold sales, this acted to stabilize the dollar and boost the economy. The country had gone through tremendous upheaval during the Civil War and was not yet fully restored.
Photograph of the blackboard in the New York Gold Room, September 24, 1869, showing the collapse of the price of gold. Handwritten caption by James A. Garfield indicates it was used as evidence before the Committee of Banking & Currency during hearings in 1870.
Jay Gould Railroad developer and speculator
Ulysses S. Grant President of the United States
George S. Boutwell Secretary of the Treasury
Jason Gould was an American railroad magnate and financial speculator who founded the Gould business dynasty. He is generally identified as one of the robber barons of the Gilded Age. His sharp and often unscrupulous business practices made him one of the wealthiest men of the late nineteenth century. Gould was an unpopular figure during his life and remains controversial.
Jay Gould
Jay Gould (right) in 1855
Keystone Marker for Gouldsboro, Pennsylvania, named after Gould
1882 cartoon depicting Wall Street as "Jay Gould's Private Bowling Alley"