The Freedman's Saving and Trust Company
*The Freedman's Saving and Trust Company opened on this date in 1865. Known as the Freedman's Savings Bank, it was a private savings bank chartered by the U.S. Congress to collect deposits from the newly emancipated communities.
At the end of the American Civil War, the poor economic conditions of the formerly enslaved freedmen were aggravated by the economic devastation of the Southern states. The newly freed Blacks had few economic resources or capital and less exposure to private enterprise. Many soon turned to sharecropping and forced labor in the South. To help alleviate their socio-economic conditions, the Republican-controlled U. S. Congress established the Freedmen's Bureau on March 3, 1865.
Within seven years, the bank opened 37 branches across 17 states and Washington, DC, and collected funds from over 67,000 depositors. At the height of its success, Freedman's Savings Bank held assets worth more than $3.7 million in 1872 dollars, which translates to approximately $80 million in 2021. However, the rapid development of the bank was led by false claims, mismanagement, and fraud. The bank failed in 1874, weighed down by speculative loans issued by its white officials throughout its existence. Historians believe that the bank's failure affected the savings of many Blacks and their trust in financial institutions. The Treasury Annex later occupied the site where the bank's headquarters once stood.
The Annex was renamed the Freedman's Bank Building in 2016. The surviving documentation and papers of the bank archives illuminate the names, whereabouts, and other relevant information about the veterans of the 7th Regiment United States Colored Troops and their transactions with the bank. The data is considered historically important in the study of African American history. The bank's records of 480,000 names, estimated to be the largest single repository of lineage-linked African American records, have been indexed by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The searchable database is available to amateur and professional genealogists and researchers.
