Rumours are circulating that claim Black Friday got its name from when traders would sell their slaves to others on the day after Thanksgiving at discounted prices.
The rumours that Black Friday got its name from the slave trade tend to become prolific every November during the run-up to Thanksgiving, but alas they are entirely false, demonstrably so, since the term Black Friday was not in use until the 1950s, many, many years after slavery was abolished.
Despite the actual term ‘Black Friday’ dating back to the 19th century, its first recorded usage to describe the day after Thanksgiving was around 1951. In fact the term Black Friday is generally credited with two original sources…
The first derived from workers wanting an extra day off work after Thanksgiving, affording them 4 consecutive days off work. Reported absences rose the day after Thanksgiving – the Friday, thus leading to the term Black Friday, leading to the term becoming common [but not widespread] in the early 1950s.
DID YOU KNOW: Black Friday stemmed from slavery? It was the day after Thanksgiving when slave traders would sell slaves for a discount to assist plantation owners with more helpers for upcoming winter (for cutting and stacking fire wood, winterproofing, etc.), hence the name…
The second source didn’t occur until the 1960’s, and this was the first time the term was used to describe specifically the retail aspect of the day. This derived from the way in which police officers in Philadelphia described the smog, pollution and general mayhem caused by the significant increase in traffic on the two days after Thanksgiving, the Friday and Saturday, which were the two busiest shopping days of the year. Needless to say, the term wasn’t exactly a term of endearment!
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Whether the original fifties use of the term influenced the later Philadelphia term is uncertain, but it was the later 60s usage that eventually went on to become a widespread phenomenon.
Rumours about the name for Black Friday have always been as varied as they have been prolific. Past “theories” have suggested that Black Friday was named as such because it was the day of the year that most businesses turned out an annual profit and thus went “into the black”. More recent example claim that Rebecca Black, who sang the famous tune “Friday” coined the name, despite it being in common usage long before she was even born!
