Corruption, Capitalism, and Fraud in 19th-Century America

Corruption defined political and economic life in nineteenth century America. The rise and fall of industries, the instability of banking, and the duplicity of politicians shaped the ways in which the public understood the high moral cost of doing business. Each paper in this panel will delve into a unique aspect of nineteenth-century corruption and fraud, and their relationship to the vagaries of capitalism. David K. Thomson, in “’Bonds Negotiated in the Grossest Fraud’: Fraud, Corruption, Trust, and Mississippi State Debt in the Antebellum United States,” will use Mississippi as a case study to explore state debt repudiation in the antebellum era. By tracing the ways in which the rhetoric of fraud, corruption, trust, and honor infiltrated debates between European financiers, American bond agents, and representatives of the state of Mississippi, Thomson’s paper will illuminate the political economy of US state debt in the antebellum era. Moving to the era of Reconstruction, Justene Hill Edwards’ paper, “Mistrust, Gilded Age Corruption, and the Failure of the Freedman’s Savings and Trust Company,” will consider what happens when we look at the history of Gilded Age corruption through the lens of race. Hill Edwards will use the history of the Freedman’s Bank to consider the relationship between financial corruption, mistrust, and the experiences of African Americans as they engaged with the American financial services industry during Reconstruction and the early Gilded Age. Pamela Laird’s paper, “Corruption and the Array of Publics,” will take the topic of corruption to the end of the 19th century. Laird will examine narratives from the well-known 1892 Homestead Strike through the lens of social capital to show how different publics interpreted each other’s actions as “corrupt” while their own were “proper and right”—in the public interest. Corruption damaged an idealized “public” that differed for each community.