Black Women's Bank Accounts
Caroline Williams’s deposit book for the National Freedman’s Savings and Trust Company, Tallahassee Branch
According to census records, Williams worked as a farm laborer and housekeeper.
Image courtesy of the University of Georgia’s Freedman’s Bank Research website
The American banking industry denied most women, particularly married women, the right to open bank accounts on their own until the passage of the 1974 Equal Credit Opportunity Act. This history makes it even more astonishing that 100 years earlier, Black women and children could open their own individual accounts at the Freedman's Savings and Trust Company.
Julia Vaughn's deposit book for the National Freedman's Savings and Trust Company, Tallahassee Branch
Image courtesy of the University of Georgia's Freedman's Bank Research website
Anna Pierce's deposit book for the National Freedman's Savings and Trust Company, Tallahassee Branch
According to the 1885 state census, Pierce was the head of her family at age 42, with 10 children and one daughter-in-law.
Image courtesy of the University of Georgia's Freedman's Bank Research website.
