Savings and Trust: The Rise and Betrayal of the Freedman’s Bank
By Justene Hill Edwards
W.W. Norton & Co., 2024

The Freedman’s Bank was the first personal banking institution to serve formerly enslaved African Americans in the aftermath of the Civil War. Established by Congress in 1865, it collapsed after nine years, squandering over $2 million ($77 million today) of depositors’ money along with their path to prosperity. How that happened left a legacy which rippled definingly through the Reconstruction era to the present, providing critical context to current debates and a new lens through which to view the story of American capitalism.

About the Author
Justene Hill Edwards lives in Charlottesville, where she serves as an Associate Professor of History at the University of Virginia and researches the intersection of capitalism and African American history. Edwards studied at Swarthmore and Princeton, where she earned her PhD.

Purchase the book
Please help support local independent bookstores by purchasing this book at Browseabout Books, official bookseller of the History Book Festival. Online sources and digital versions are tempting; however, supporting local brick and mortar shops helps to preserve our vibrant main streets. Drop by Browseabout, order books online, or call the store at 302-226-2665. You also may purchase a copy at biblion in Lewes.

About the Festival
The History Book Festival is the first and only book festival in the United States devoted exclusively to history. With the help of our presenting funding partners — Delaware Humanities and The Lee Ann Wilkinson Group, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices | PenFed Realty — as well as our program and community partners, volunteers, and donors, the 2025 History Book Festival will be full of great discussions with authors of newly published narrative nonfiction and historical fiction. 

Thanks to all of our donors, especially our education and outreach funding partners: Ronald Collins & Susan Cohen, Carolyn & Aaron Nayer, Jen Mason & Clare Hancock, and Browseabout Books. HBF authors visit classrooms in Delaware, and HBF provides their books to schools, libraries, and community organizations.

Our Keynote event is presented by Griswold Home Care for Sussex and Kent Counties and Sally Mott Freeman & John K. Freeman; our Closing event is presented by the Delaware Community Foundation. Saturday’s Spirited Discussion, our gathering for attendees and presenters to celebrate and discuss their day, is presented by Dogfish Head Beer & Benevolence.

Special thanks to our Founding Program Partners for their continuing support: the Lewes Public Library, for event promotion and production, and Browseabout Books in Rehoboth Beach, official bookseller of the History Book Festival. Thanks also to the  Lewes Chamber of Commerce for event promotion, and the Cape Gazette and Delmarva Public Media, our media partners.