The Freedmen's Savings Bank

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Monograph

Identifikator:: 175265076X

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-129631

Document type:: Monograph

Author:: Fleming, Walter Lynwood http://d-nb.info/gnd/120660560X

Title:: The Freedmen's Savings Bank

Place of publication:: Chapel Hill

Publisher:: Univ. of North Carolina Press

Year of publication:: 1927

Scope:: x, 170 S.

Digitisation:: 2021

Collection:: Economics Books

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Chapter

Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Chapter III. Organization and expansion of the Freedman's Bank

Collection:: Economics Books

35 THE FREEDMEN’S SAVINGS BANK sidered it essential to the welfare of the ex-slaves. The Negroes were given to understand that the institution was absolutely safe, since it was under the guarantee of Congress and had its funds in- vested in United States securities which were good as long as the government should last. The fact was also emphasized that it was a benevo- lent scheme solely for the benefit of those who had once been slaves. The profits, they were told, would be returned to the depositors as in- terest, or would be expended for Negro education. The Douglas Report (1876) criticized severely the methods of the promoters, charging, among other things: “In regard to this bank the grossest deception was practiced upon the Negroes. They were told that it was a government institution and its solvency and safety guaranteed by the United States. Missionaries, of whom the chief was Alvord, perambulated the South, mixing religion, politics and education, and teaching the blacks how to ‘toil and save’ and then trust their hard earned savings to Alvord and his associates to invest them, not until, however, they had levied toll for their services in bestowing such inestimable benefits and for their disinterested labors and sacrifices.” The Freedmen’s Bureau was soon more closely associated with the bank. George W. Balloch, then chief disbursing officer of the Bureau, later a trustee of the bank, gave material aid by allow- ing the offices of the Bureau agents throughout the South to be used rent-free by the branch banks; and often the agents acted without charge 1 To. Report No. 502, 44 Cong., 1 Sess. iy

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