Title: The Van Buren Administration | Boundless US History
Headings: The Van Buren Administration
The Van Buren Administration
The Politics of Slavery
Learning Objectives
Key Takeaways
Key Points
Key Terms
Slavery in the South
Abolitionism
Garrison and Immediate Emancipation
The Liberty Party
Southern Responses
The Panic of 1837
Learning Objectives
Key Takeaways
Key Points
Key Terms
Introduction: The Panic of 1837
Causes
Economic Booms and Busts
Jackson’s Policies
Effects and Aftermath
Recovery

Content: Causes
Economic Booms and Busts
Growth of the U.S. economy during the Market Revolution produced an upsurge in investment in emerging financial sectors. These speculative investments were frequently made with borrowed funds, resulting in large-scale cycles of boom and bust in the early 1800s. The tremendous growth in the agricultural sector in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries encouraged land speculation, or the purchasing of land with the expectation that its value would continue to increase. Cotton, at first a small-scale crop in the South, boomed following Eli Whitney ‘s invention of the cotton gin in 1793. Raw cotton from southern plantations was shipped to textile mills in Britain, France, and, by the 1820s, New England. Millions also migrated to fertile farmlands of the Midwest, and new roads and waterways opened up new markets for western farm products. The U.S. government borrowed heavily to finance the War of 1812, which caused tremendous strain on the banks’ reserves of specie (gold and silver), leading to a suspension of specie payments in 1814. The suspension of the obligation to back transactions with hard currency spurred the establishment of new banks and the expansion of bank-note issues. This inflation of money encouraged unsustainable investments. Jackson’s Policies
The Panic of 1837 was influenced by the economic policies of President Jackson.