On September 24, 1869, the U.S. financial sector descended into chaos after rebel speculators Jay Gould and Jim Fisk attempted to corner the nation’s gold market. The robber barons hoped to make a mint by driving the price of gold into the stratosphere, and to help pull it off, they built a network of corruption that extended from Wall Street and the New York City government all the way to the family of President Ulysses S. Grant. The conspiracy finally unraveled 145 years ago on what became known as “Black Friday,” but not before Gould and Fisk had dragged the entire U.S. economy to the brink of catastrophe.
Jay Gould Jim Fisk
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