The Black Friday of shopping was not born in the gold panic

The first documented use of the term Black Friday in the United States, according to the BBC, occurred on September 24, 1869: Jay Gould and James Fisk attempted to corner the gold market at the New York Stock Exchange; the government intervened and prices fell. The shopping Friday only received this name in the 1950s and 1960s in Philadelphia, as a day of heavy police and traffic strain, not as a discount concept, according to Quartz and Historia.org.pl. Quartz, updated November 2, 2026, states that the two meanings have no connection; Historia.org.pl on November 1 and Moore Monthly on November 3 also separate the panic from the shopping season.

What happened on September 24, 1869

Here at Web2View, we separate crisis from campaign before repeating the name. The BBC completes the picture of that day: by intervening, the government increased the gold supply, prices fell, and many investors lost large fortunes. Benjamin Zimmer, cited by the BBC, notes that the adjective “black” had been used to name calamities for centuries.

Historia.org.pl details the intervention by Ulysses Grant’s government, which put Treasury gold reserves up for sale. Prices plummeted, the stock exchange panicked, and many investors lost their fortunes. The day went down in history as Black Friday. Moore Monthly records that, according to historians, the September 1869 crash is the first documented use of the expression. Quartz links the panic to Jay Gould and Jim Fisk’s gold-price scheme and treats the episode as a separate history.

Why the November sale does not originate there

Historia.org.pl is explicit: the collapse is not the birth of November promotions. Today’s Black Friday is younger and tied to American pre-Christmas commerce, when people shop for gifts. Moore Monthly places the start of the shopping event in the 1950s in Philadelphia.

What does not mix:

- 1869, New York: the name marks a gold-market panic.
- 1950s and 1960s, Philadelphia: the name marks street chaos the day after the holiday.
- 1980s: retail flips the meaning, and the accounting explanation comes later.

Where the store Friday’s name came from

In 1950s and 1960s Philadelphia, Historia.org.pl describes packed streets the day after Thanksgiving. The Army–Navy game was in the city on Saturday, fans arrived on Friday, and police had their hands full. Quartz adds bus drivers to the term’s use, born as workplace slang, not marketing. Moore Monthly adds tourists, crowded stores, theft in the chaos, and extra shifts.

Philadelphia merchants tried Big Friday. Historia.org.pl and Quartz say it did not catch on. In the early 1980s, the red-ink-for-loss and black-ink-for-profit reading spread. Historia.org.pl calls this a later legend. Quartz places its popularity in the 1980s and notes that it does not explain the origin. Moore Monthly marks the 1980s as the turning point when retail repositioned the date as a major event.

What the calendar carried forward

The BBC describes long lines in the United States and discounts that can reach 90% off the original price. In 1939, Quartz reports, Franklin Roosevelt moved Thanksgiving forward one week to extend the Christmas shopping season; there was opposition, and some states kept the earlier date. In 1941, Congress fixed the holiday on the fourth Thursday in November, a rule that, according to Quartz, makes Black Friday shift from year to year. Quartz cites, around the date, Cyber Monday, Small Business Saturday, and Giving Tuesday, as well as the tradition’s arrival in Canada and the United Kingdom.

We do not use the 1869 panic to explain the shopping season. The name repeated; the cause did not.