I’m so thrifty, I’ve been known to almost cause crashes by jumping into a busy street to pick up a penny. Naturally, I enjoy saving a buck. I also enjoy sleep, which is one of life’s greatest satisfactions. That presents me with a tormenting dilemma when Black Friday early-bird sales roll around. Which pleasure do I indulge, and which do I deny? (Spoiler alert: The one I pick usually involves snoring.)

I never really cared for the name Black Friday. It gained popularity in the late 1980s and early 1990s, chiefly because it’s so much more compact than the clunky “Day After Thanksgiving.” But to students of history, it goes deeper. The phrase conjures up an actual day that brought financial disaster to the United States. Since it happened exactly 150 years ago this fall, now is a good time to revisit the original Black Friday.