2 THE FREEDMEN’S SAVINGS BANK 
tion, to describe its possibilities, its development, 
its decline and collapse, and to show how it in- 
fluenced the Negroes. 
ECONOMIC WEAKNESS OF THE NEGRO RACE 
Aside from the question of race and status per- 
haps the greatest weakness of the Negro popula- 
tion in 1865 was its extreme poverty. In spite of 
destruction by war there was still much accumu- 
lated wealth in the southern states, but it was 
in the hands of the stronger race; the Negro, 
therefore, could not begin with equal opportuni- 
ties. Under slavery the Negro had assimilated 
much of the white man’s civilization: he could 
speak the language; he had accepted the Chris- 
tian religion; and in manners and customs he had 
imitated the whites. But slavery, though it had 
eradicated many primitive traits and had shown 
the Negro what he had not previously known, the 
virtue of hard labor, still had not taught him 
self-reliance or thrift. So the year 1865 saw the 
Negro population of the United States, with 
what it had gained during the period of servi- 
tude, thrown suddenly into a somewhat highly 
organized, though defective, economic society, 
with some serious weaknesses to hinder its well- 
being and progress. It was an alien race in Amer- 
ica;it was not self-reliant;it was not experienced; 
it was uneducated; and it had almost no eco- 
nomic asset except its capacity for labor. 
The Negro’s ability to work was then, and has 
been at all times since then, the greatest strength 
of the race. In the South this labor was much 
needed, and there was a possibility that within