feb 1, 1837 - Flour Riot

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The flour riot of 1837 was a food riot that broke out in New York City in February 1837, and lasted less than a day. This violent civil disturbance grew out of a public meeting called by the Locofocos to protest runaway prices, as hungry workers plundered private storerooms filled with sacks of hoarded flour. Commodity prices had skyrocketed over the winter of 1836–37, an inflationary boom fueled by foreign investment and two successive years of wheat crop failures. The riot was also a sign of the impending financial crisis known as the Panic of 1837, that hit the American economy the following month.

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