Abstract

Money in the Bank: African Amercian Women, Finance, and Freedom in New Bern, North Carolina, 1868-1874

“Should [I] die with money in the bank it is to go to Gatsey Cole.” These were the instructions of Gatsey Williams when she opened a bank account at the New Bern branch of the Freedman’s Savings and Trust Company on June 5, 1874. She did not intend to pass her savings to her husband, Sharper J. Williams. Her husband, a farmer in New Bern, likely knew of her account, as he had one too. Instead, she directed it to her namesake, probably a cousin or niece. Williams specified that Gatsey Cole lived in Goldsboro with her mother, Katie Cole,