130 THE FREEDMEN S$ SAVINGS BANK 
could have done so much to throttle the thrift 
of the freedmen as the mismanagement and 
bankruptcy of the series of savings banks char- 
tered by the Nation for their special aid.” 
Booker T. Washington says of the results: 
“When they found that they had lost or been 
swindled out of their little savings they lost 
faith in savings banks, and it was a long time 
after this before it was possible to mention a 
savings bank for Negroes without some reference 
being made to the disaster of the Freedmen’s 
Bank.” 
17 Story of the Negro, II, 214.