Freedom, many formerly enslaved people believed, required more than emancipation; it required financial security. That idea sits at the heart of Savings and Trust: The Rise and Betrayal of the Freedman’s Bank, UVA historian Justene Hill Edwards’ award-winning account of a Reconstruction-era bank created by Congress in 1865 to help newly freed Black Americans build wealth after the Civil War.
Last month, the Frederick Douglass Book Prize committee announced that Savings and Trust had won the award for 2025, recognizing its powerful documentation of the interplay of economic freedom, slavery, and democracy.
Drawing on archival research and vivid storytelling—and with Karsh Institute support through a summer stipend and book manuscript workshop—Hill Edwards writes about how African Americans used banking to further establish their new citizenship, and how the Freedman's Bank failure helped shape long-standing wealth inequality.
African Americans used banking to further establish their new citizenship, but the Freedman’s Bank failure helped shape long-standing wealth inequality.
We recently caught up with Hill Edwards to congratulate her on the Douglass prize and to find out why the story of the bank remains relevant today.
Q: What drew you to the history of the Freedman’s Bank?
Hill Edwards: It first came on my radar when I was living in Washington, D.C. One day, my now-husband came home and asked me about it. He had seen a plaque commemorating the Freedman’s Bank next to the Department of the Treasury and adjacent to the White House. Despite being a trained historian of slavery and African American history, I didn’t know much about it.
So, I started looking at what other historians and scholars had written. I was surprised by how little there was. And there was nothing updated to connect the history of the bank to newer scholarship on democracy and capitalism.
Q: How did the rise and collapse of the bank reveal both the promises and limitations of American democracy?
Hill Edwards: That question is central to the history of the Freedman’s Bank and to the book. It’s also an enduring question for American democracy. There have always been groups who struggle to gain recognition from the federal government for their rights.
During Reconstruction, formerly enslaved people were trying to exercise their new rights. They saw economic prosperity as essential to living as free Americans. African Americans used their investment in the Freedman’s Bank to determine the strength of American democracy at a critical moment. Access to secure banking signaled whether the nation would protect Black citizens’ property, honor their citizenship, and uphold equal participation in public life, all of which are core measures of a functioning democracy.It was a testing ground for what it meant to be included in the body politic.
Formerly enslaved people saw economic prosperity as essential to living as free Americans.
Q: Do you think the bank’s failure fueled the economic inequality that exists today?
Hill Edwards: This was a question I thought about a lot while writing. It’s even more urgent now, given our current moment of austerity. The story of the Freedman’s Bank shows how fragile financial inclusion really is.
African Americans, recently emancipated from slavery, invested millions into their financial futures, but the federal government was not as committed to protecting their interests as it was its own. That distrust grew out of repeated betrayals, most notably thecollapse of the Freedman’s Bank, which wiped out Black savings and demonstrated that federal promises of protection were fragile and conditional.
African Americans, recently emancipated from slavery, invested millions into their financial futures, but the federal government was not as committed to protecting their interests as it was its own.
That failure had generational consequences. Today, African Americans are more likely to be unbanked or underbanked because of this distrust of the system. That directly affects access to home ownership, which has provided the primary ladder to middle-class wealth over the past century.
If we look at the major tools used to build wealth, African Americans have been strategically excluded. This exclusion was not accidental but the result of policies and practices that denied Black Americans safe financial institutions, fair credit, and legal protections, systematically limiting their ability to accumulate and pass on wealth. That trajectory began with the Freedman’s Bank.
Q: Savings and Trust has been met with critical acclaim. What does winning the 2025 Frederick Douglass Book Prize mean to you?
Hill Edwards: It means a lot, especially because the Douglass prize first came on my radar when I decided I wanted to be a historian of slavery. It’s an amazing feeling. I’m very appreciative and still in shock.
It’s even more special because Douglass plays a big role in the book. There’s been so much great scholarship about him, but not much on him as an economic thinker or a man of finance. I like that I was able to talk about him in that way.
There’s been so much great scholarship about Frederick Douglass, but not much on him as an economic thinker or a man of finance. I like that I was able to talk about him in that way.
Also, the Karsh Institute’s support was instrumental: from the summer stipend that allowed me to write full-time to the book-manuscript workshop that was one of the most transformative experiences I’ve had as a scholar.
Q: As a scholar of history, how were you able to immerse yourself in this story of finance and banking?
Hill Edwards: History is the major lens. It helps us understand the world we live in today. Many of our political successes and failures aren’t new; they have historical parallels. The history of this period, and the bank specifically, offers important lessons for our present moment. In a democracy, it’s important to protect those who historically have not been protected by the federal government.
The history of the Freedman’s Bank offers a stark lens through which we can have modern conversations about racial wealth inequality. With emerging technologies like AI, many fear these gaps will widen. These problems aren’t new. But history gives us a critical perspective so we can better understand and address them.