THE GOLD SHIP THAT SANK AND CAUSED AMERICA'S FIRST GLOBAL CRASH

In 1857 the SS Central America sank in a hurricane off North Carolina, taking 30,000 pounds of California gold — $2 million — to the bottom of the ocean. The combined shock collapsed every New York bank by October 14th and sent the economy into a three-year depression. And on December 23, 1857, a broke farmer named Ulysses S. Grant pawned his gold watch just to survive Christmas.The Central America took four hundred and twenty-five souls with her when she finally slipped beneath the Atlantic's surface on the afternoon of September fourteenth. Among them were one hundred and one children. No major prosecutions, nobody went to jail.🎧 Part of the Sleepy Stock Market series — financial history told as documentary audio.SLEEPY STOCK MARKETFall asleep to the greatest stories in financial history.#Panic1857 #FinancialHistory #AmericanHistory #SSCentralAmerica #GoldRush #BankingCrisis #HistoryShorts #UlyssesGrant #19thCentury #EconomicHistory