The U.S. financial panic that began in 1837 and caused a severe economic depression was the Panic of 1837.
The panic started in May 1837, when banks in New York City suspended payments in gold and silver. A speculative boom in land and transportation had been supported by easy credit, while President Andrew Jackson’s financial policies and the transfer of federal deposits away from the Second Bank of the United States helped destabilize the banking system. The crisis spread through the United States and abroad.
Prices, wages, and employment fell sharply, and many banks and businesses failed. The downturn lasted until about 1843, making it one of the longest U.S. depressions before the Civil War. A common mix-up is treating the panic as only a stock-market event: it was a broader banking, credit, and commercial crisis. The neighboring Panic of 1857 had different immediate causes and occurred two decades later.