This meticulously researched book reveals the untold story of the Freedman’s Bank. This post-Civil War institution promised economic empowerment for formerly enslaved people but was ultimately sabotaged by its white financiers. Through deception and devastating mismanagement, the hopes and trust of its Black depositors were betrayed—contributing to generational economic inequality.

This story is absolutely gutting. It’s a gripping read for everyone who cares about American history.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received. This is my honest and voluntary review.

This is SO good. This history is shocking and upsetting but also fascinating. I had heard of The Freedman's Bank but wasn't at all familiar with the details, only the impact on the Black Community. I grew up in Detroit and am a proud graduate of Detroit Public Schools. I graduated in the early 90s. My high school history teacher told our class that the failure of the Freedman's Bank is why so many of our relatives don't use banks. My family used banks, but I had Black teachers at the school who did not. I had neighbors who did not. When I was a sales manager for a major cell phone company in the city with mostly Black employees, half of my staff refused direct deposit and had no bank accounts. I knew it was tied to this historical banking crisis, but I had not realized how severe the failure was. So when I saw this book on NetGalley, I was extra excited to review it.

This was fascinating in so many ways. I did not know much about early banks in the US. I had not realized that Savings & Loan operated as a style of Bank, not as an option at a regular bank. It's been lost in the history of the immediate post Antebellum period, but white abolitionists become obsessed at the end of the Civil War with this weird idea that formerly enslaved folks were lazy and looking for charity. There was no concern that former enslavers, who had proven themselves generationally to be too lazy to nurse or even care for their own kids, would be expecting charity from the government. In fact, former enslavers were expecting governmental charity and received it in restitution for the loss of their formerly enslaved property. Yes, quiet as it's kept, enslavers were paid reparations for slavery but the concern was that the formerly enslaved might have expectations of fairness. Let me not digress here.

The Savings and Loan Freedman's Bank was established primarily so that Black Union Soldiers could save money to care for themselves. This was the social movement of the era, the equivalent of a social safety net. So many working class populations were encouraged to invest their meager wages in a Savings and Loan Bank for their own retirement. These were not commercial institutions. They were supposed to be protected places to keep your money, and no great interest was expected to be earned on the monies held within, but you would at least get back what you invested. Banks that functioned as investments in loaning money to the community were different institutions.

The Freedman's Savings and Loan Bank was started and ruined by white men. Frederick Douglas was brought in only in the final years, after the bank was failing due to illegal mismanagement by the white leaders. Largely so he could be the public face of the failure. He took the job in an attempt to prevent the collapse of the bank, and in the event of a collapse, he hoped to be able to help the Black Community recover what assets it could.

The long and short of it is that formerly enslaved Black folks had more wealth than white folks expected. They trusted the system and invested "over $ 75 million ($ 1.9 trillion today)." The long and short of it is white people illegally stole the money and caused the bank to fail through their racist and illegal business practices. They stole millions from formerly enslaved peoples and mostly used the money so they and their friends could profit. When the bank was opened to giving out loans, Black folks who had used the bank to hold their money weren't eligible to borrow or take out a loan. So our own wealth wasn't even allowed to be used to grow our own community. After the white folks had stolen all they could, they placed Frederick Douglas in charge so the bank would be a visible failure of Black folks to perform in the financial sector. The government refused to even distribute the millions left in the bank when it failed to those who made deposits so they could recover any of their investments. The government failed to uphold its own laws and hold the white bank managers accountable for their theft.

It's so deeply shocking it honestly makes the case for Reparations all on its own. It's frustrating because victims of the Holocaust are allowed to fight for what was stolen from their families during WW2. Yet the exact same justice is denied Black Americans even when the issue is clear-cut thievery with an easy to trace record. I felt like this after learning about the Osage Murders dramatized in the movie Killers of the Flower Moon. The white folks who currently own this land are the direct descendants of those who murdered to steal it. How come they don't get their land back, at least? There's no reparations when white folks violate People of Color, only when white folks violate other white folks.

This is excellently researched and extremely interesting. There's a lot of history that isn't in the regular history books. The only good to come of this is that when the stock market crashed in 1929, Black folks didn't have much money in the system to lose. The long arm of this is brutal as far as impact today.

Thank you to Justene Hill Edwards, W. W. Norton & Company, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this ebook. All opinions and viewpoints expressed in this review are my own.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher W. W. Norton and Company, along with the author, Justene Hill Edwards for an advance reader’s copy. All opinions are my own.


Savings and Trust is a historic gem of overlooked American history. Compelling, educational, and artfully written, Savings and Trust shows how Freedman’s Bank failure helped to increase the racial inequality gap. The author insight into the rise and fall is exemplary. I highly recommend reading this book to everyone who wants to know about the root causes of racial inequality and the impact that still ripples today. This is not just African American history, but American history that four lines do not fully encompass or adequately represent what damages this historical event caused. Thank you to the author, Justene Hill Edwards, for bringing to light these events and telling the story of the Freedman’s Bank.