The Regular Union Republican Ticket! Ballot for John Brown

The Regular Union Republican Ticket! Ballot for John Brown

African Americans, suffrage, politics

A former slave in Southampton County, John Brown emerged as a leader among the freedpeople there after the Civil War. As a candidate for the convention called in 1867 to write a new state constitution as required by federal law, he had ballots like this one printed to give to men voting for him. Almost 98 percent of registered black men in Southampton appeared at the polls on October 22, 1867. All 1,242 black voters and a lone white supported Brown, who easily defeated two white candidates. In the convention he regularly voted with the Radicals to reform and democratize the state constitution and protect the rights of freedpeople.

John Brown

Secretary of the Commonwealth, General Election Records, 1867, 1869, Southampton County, Accession 50706, State Government Records Collection,

1867

Library of Virginia

CC BY-SA

JPG

Printed form

15_1072_003

Southampton County, Virginia