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Revisiting @MehrsaBaradaran’s “The Color of Money” & this just knocked me out. Less than a decade out of slavery, black ppl trusted the Freedman’s Bank with their savings, and then lost everything when the bank went under.
“More than half of accumulated black wealth disappeared”
“More than half of accumulated black wealth disappeared”
After the Emancipation Proclamation black people had 0.5% of the wealth in the United States & today black people still only have about 1% of the wealth in the United States.
She also does an excellent job of disabusing readers of the idea that the wealth generated from slavery was just in the South. Slavery generated wealth for people across the country whether they owned enslaved people or not.
3.2 million enslaved people were equal to the entire gross national product
Anyway, @MehrsaBaradaran’s book is excellent & you should read it.
