Historian | Author | Speaker
A leading historian exposes how the rise and tragic failure of the Freedman’s Bank has shaped economic inequality in America.
“America’s racial wealth gap can be traced to the collapse of the Freedman’s Savings and Trust Company in 1874, according to this ingenious work of financial sleuthing.… [A] captivating narrative that reads like a slow-burn legal thriller.”
Publishers Weekly, starred
Meet the Author
Justene is an Associate Professor of History in the Corcoran Department of History at the University of Virginia. Her research explores the intersection of African American history, the history of slavery, and the history of American capitalism. In her work, she investigates slavery’s role in the long history of economic inequality in America, focusing on the 18th and 19th centuries.
Books
Always highlighting the lives of enslaved and formerly enslaved people, Justene studies the relationship between economic and political freedom for people of African descent in the United States.