Savings and Trust: The Rise and Betrayal of the Freedman's Bank

On Wednesday, October 16, Professor Justene Hill Edwards will discuss her new book, (W. W. Norton, 2024), in the UVA Special Collections Library auditorium! This event is free and open to the public, but registration is required. Paid parking is available nearby at the Central Grounds Parking Garage located near the UVA bookstore.

From the publisher's page: "In the years immediately after the Civil War, tens of thousands of former slaves deposited millions of dollars into the Freedman’s Bank. African Americans envisioned this new bank as a launching pad for economic growth and self-determination. But only nine years after it opened, their trust was betrayed and the Freedman’s Bank collapsed...Justene Hill Edwards unearths a major turning point in American history in this comprehensive account of the Freedman’s Bank and its depositors. She illuminates the hope with which the bank was first envisioned and demonstrates the significant setback that the sabotage of the bank caused in the fight for economic autonomy."

Host or Publisher John L. Nau III Center for Civil War History