20 THE FREEDMEN’S SAVINGS BANK 
allot it to the government for savings which 
would be paid to the soldiers when discharged. 
Since most Negro soldiers were unable to reach 
their families, the “allotment” system enabled 
some willing ones to save part of their pay until 
they were mustered out and in need of the funds.! 
The first bank established for Negroes only 
was organized in New Orleans in 1864 by General 
N. P. Banks, who called it the “Free Labor 
Bank.” There were several thousand Negro sol- 
diers in Bank’s command and many “free men 
of color” with property in New Orleans, and on 
the plantations in the parishes under Federal 
control there were other thousands of half-free 
Negroes who received or were promised some 
sort of pay for their work. General Banks was 
much interested in his “free labor department,” 
which was designed for the purpose of transform- 
ing the late slaves into free working men. It was 
mainly for these “free laborers” that the bank 
was established, though soldiers were also en- 
couraged to make deposits. The bank was a suc- 
cess, according to report, though full information 
concerning it is lacking. Not only were individ- 
ual deposits received but the officers in charge 
of the Negro “home colonies” placed in the bank 
the proceeds from the plantation sales. For ex- 
ample, the deposits of the Rost Home Colony 
amounted to $21,605.83.2 
1 Senate Rept., No. 440, 46 Cong., 2 Sess. (1880); Booklet, Freedmen’s 
Savings and Trust Co. (1872). 
2 This colony was established on the Destrehan plantation of Judge 
Pierre A, Rost. Probably the money came to the bank through the Freed- 
men’s Bureau. —House Exec. Doc., No. 144, 44 Cong., 1 Sess.; Phelps, 
Louisiana, p. 330; Howard’s Reminiscences; Peirce, Freedmen’s Bureau, 
pp. 18, 123; Banks, “Emancipated Labor in Louisiana,” New York Times,