The Bank of North America: Our Nation’s First Central Bank, is comprised of three lessons that work as an interdisciplinary unit on economic history, math, and financial literacy. The lessons in this unit take students through the history of the bank, how to use a bank, and the history of our currency. It follows the financial literacy standards for the 4th and 8th grade benchmark, although the history and economics activities can be adapted for all grade levels.
The bank was proposed by Robert Morris and Alexander Hamilton and chartered by the Second Continental Congress in 1781. At this time, our Continental currency was failing and the new government could not pay soldiers who were serving during the Revolutionary War. Our new country needed a system in place to attract wealthy investors, particularly from other European countries, in order to keep our economy afloat.
These lessons are meant to provide students with an understanding of the role of the bank in our daily lives as well as how our currency has changed over time. It will also offer teachers new resources such as historic paper currency, multiple hands-on activities, and plenty of primary sources from the Bank of North America records here at HSP.