Sharon Ann Murphy Bücher

By helping readers understand the financial history of this period and the way banking shaped the society in which ordinary Americans lived and worked, this book broadens and deepens our knowledge of the Early American Republic.

Introduction : banking in the nation's largest slave market -- Part I. Financing southwestern expansion through the 1810s. The limits of early bank financing of slavery -- Adapting slave financing to the needs of the frontier South during the nation's first boom and bust -- Part II. Financing an empire of slavery in the 1820s and 1830s. Old South banks and frontier finance -- Pushing financial boundaries with traditional banks -- Reimagining banking for a slave economy -- Part III. The collateral damage of the Panics of 1837 and 1839. Foreclosing (or not) on delinquent slaveholders -- Escaping debt : bankruptcy, fraud, and going to Texas -- When banks fail -- From commercial banking to private finance -- Epilogue : banks, debt, emancipation, reparations, and memory