By Alexis Taylor
AFRO Managing Editor
Ataylor@afro.com
“Why are we still talking about slavery?”
I get this question multiple times a year— from Black people, in fact.
Tired of seeing themselves portrayed as slaves on the big and small screen, many African Americans believe it’s time to leave the horror of what our ancestors endured in the past.
Aside from the obvious answer of understanding history and “knowing where you came from,” there are deeper reasons to explore not only chattel slavery but the Reconstruction Era that immediately followed, from 1865 to 1877.
Contrary to those who hold the opinion that exploring slavery yields nothing but trauma, I often draw inspiration from the stories of those who lived in antebellum America.
There are countless tales of men and women who were brave enough to walk out of slavery– even after the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850– which empowered federal government officials and everyday citizens to act as slave catchers in both the slave and “free states.” There was Henry Box Brown, clever enough to mail himself to freedom and the many who devised a plan to slip away on the waterways.
And then there are ancestors who purchased their freedom by saving every penny earned.
Can you imagine?
In 2025, many find it hard to save– in 1825, if enslaved Black people were lucky, they could take on extra work after their backbreaking tasks in the field and save their way to freedom.
Born May 3, 1789 in Goochland County, Va., John Berry Meachum worked and saved enough to purchase freedom for himself and his father by the age of 21. But he didn’t stop there. The two men then walked more than 590 miles from Hanover County, Va. to Hardin County, Kentucky to purchase Meachum’s mother and his siblings. In Kentucky, he married a slave woman whose master soon moved to Missouri.
“I followed her, arriving there in 1815, with three dollars in my pocket,” says Meachum in his book, titled “An Address to All the Colored Citizens of the United States.”
“Being a carpenter and cooper I soon obtained business, and purchased my wife and children. Since that period, I have purchased about twenty slaves, most of whom paid back the greatest part of the money, and some paid all,” he writes, proving to the masses that “industry will do a great deal,” when it comes to changing circumstances.
While it may seem like a small feat to some, these are the types of “slave stories” that interest me: A man, at the bottom of the economic chain, saving pennies to purchase freedom for himself and others. Surely there were days when he wanted to spend his money on the finer things in life or simple pleasures. Instead, he understood that the path to freedom was an economic one that would quickly evaporate with no financial literacy or discipline.
In putting together this edition of the AFRO, I kept hearing a whisper… “if they could do it– what’s your excuse?”
Surely, in 2025, I can add more than crumbs to my savings account each month.
According to the National Humanities Center Resource Toolbox, “in 1839 almost half (42 percent) of the free Blacks in Cincinnati, Ohio ⎯ across the Ohio River from slave territory ⎯ had bought their freedom.”
In saving their earnings, these people – still in the shadow of slavery– knew being smart with money could lead to generations of freedom for future descendants. They were clear on their mission, as many started businesses and bought land.
For these people, the act of budgeting, working and saving every possible penny was an act of resistance. If it were anything else, we wouldn’t have the race riots and terrorist attacks that followed the economic rise of Black people time and time again through history.
This National Financial Literacy Month, I call on all members of the Black community to honor the ancestors and engage in the same revolutionary act they did: save your coins.
Target doesn’t need them and Walmart won’t miss us…until they do.
Now is the time to be strategic about our collective finances. What land should we purchase? What historically Black institution shall we support? What Black company should we invest in?
None of this can be done without a firm foundation rooted in the practice of budgeting and saving…and that’s a lesson straight from the slave cabins of yesteryear.
