America's first black bank

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.3 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 14 February 2023

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The Freedman’s Bank was established in 1865 after the abolition of slavery and the Civil War. The Bank was designed to help newly freed African-Americans in their quest to become financially stable. At its peak, it stretched across huge swathes of America. But what began with huge promise ended in massive failure nine years later, leaving a legacy of distrust in its wake. Szu Ping Chan looks at the history and lessons from the collapse of America's first black bank.

Transcript

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0:00.0	When you meet someone online, can you trust they are who they say they are?
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0:08.2	It's all well planned.
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0:16.6	It's grown the world of online romance scams, and it's available now.
0:21.1	Find it wherever you found this podcast.
0:41.2	High praise this morning at the first African Baptist Church in Richmond, Virginia
0:45.9	on the east coast of the United States. It's 11am and Sunday service is in full swing.
0:57.7	This institution is more than 180 years old, and while the original building was located
1:03.2	about three miles south of here, it was impused just like these where faith in one institution
1:09.5	helped to forge trust in another. I'm Suping Chan for the BBC World Service,
1:19.2	and this is the story of the Friedman's Bank.
1:22.4	Established by the US government in 1865 after the end of slavery and the Civil War,
1:28.5	it failed nine years later.
1:33.9	You may not even have heard of the Friedman's Bank, but this little known episode in Black
1:38.6	History destroyed the savings of thousands of families, left a legacy of distrust that still felt
1:45.2	to this day. At the time, very few American banks were open to having African American depositors.
1:55.4	Hollis Gentry is a genealogy specialist at the National Museum of African American
2:00.5	History and Culture in Washington, D.C. She spent most of her working life piecing together the
2:06.4	records of African American soldiers, their families, and also their links with the Friedman's Bank.
2:12.4	It was started in 1865. It came into being on March 3rd, 1865. At the same time, another
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