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