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The New York Afro-American's Struggle for Political Rights and the Emergence of Political Recognition, 1865–1900
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 December 2008
Abstract
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In this periodical, in a previous article covering the period 1777–1865, it was revealed that many New York Afro-Americans had refused to view with apathy, or even equanimity, their changed political status following the end of the American Revolution. Under New York State's 1777 Constitution, freed Black Americans had held equal suffrage rights with whites, but shortly thereafter discovered that most of these voting rights were to be whittled down, initially by the Democratic-Republicans. Many New York Afro-Americans, individually and in concert reacted to the watering down of their political rights by consistently petitioning the New York State Legislature to restore their political rights as held under the 1777 Constitution. However, the dominant group's stereotype of the Colored American prevailed since petition after petition failed to convince, first the legislators and later the white voters that they should restore equal political status to Afro-Americans in New York.
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- Copyright © Internationaal Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis 1968
References
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