How Cornelius Vanderbilt Helped Cause (and Calm) the Panic of 1869

Our American Stories

iHeartPodcasts

Society & Culture, Documentary

4.3 • 737 Ratings

🗓️ 8 August 2025

⏱️ 13 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On this episode of Our American Stories, when gold prices collapsed in September 1869, it triggered one of the earliest financial panics in American history. Jay Gould and Jim Fisk had spent months driving prices higher in an attempt to corner the market, working backchannels in Washington to shield their plan from regulation. But the scheme unraveled quickly, and when it did, the damage rippled across the economy. Cornelius Vanderbilt, already one of the richest men in the country, moved fast to protect his own interests. In the process, he stabilized a market no one else could touch. T.J. Stiles tells the story of what really happened on Black Friday—and how Vanderbilt’s response changed the balance of private power in public life.

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0:00.0	This is an IHeart podcast.
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0:13.9	And this season, I'm digging into the tech stories we weren't told.
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0:21.6	he built.
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0:35.0	Here, insightful, entertaining discussions on today's important health and wellness topics
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0:50.5	My goal is to really destigmatize mental health treatment and looking at it from a whole health perspective. Physical health and mental health can be intertwined. Listen to WebMD Health Discovered on the IHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. It's And we continue with our American stories.
1:19.9	In his Pulitzer Prize-winning biography, The First Tycoon, T.J. Stiles tells the story of
1:26.0	Cornelius Vanderbilt, the man through whose genius and force of will
1:30.6	did more than perhaps any other individual in this country to create the modern American economy.
1:37.5	Our next story is one that portrays Vanderbilt at his most skillful and yet his most chilling.
1:43.6	The Commodore's personal wealth had grown so much
	...

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