Turning Points
in Wisconsin History
A Milwaukee newspaper disputes the results of the 1849 referendum on black suffrage
Negro Suffrage in Wisconsin
Despite voter approval in a special referendum on black suffrage held in 1849, the right to vote was consistently denied to African Americans during the mid-19th century. This newspaper article, written soon after Ezekiel Gillespie attempted to vote in 1865, lays out the anti-suffrage argument. It dismisses the results of the 1849 referendum by contending that the number of votes cast for suffrage in that year were not a majority of all votes cast on all subjects. The Click "Zoom & Pan" to view it more closely, or scroll down to see its electronic text version. pro-suffrage case, argued by Byron Paine before the Wisconsin Supreme Court in 1866, is given elsewhere in Turning Points.
| Related Topics: |
Territory to Statehood Wisconsin in the Civil War Era The State Constitutions of 1846 and 1848 Abolition and Other Reforms |
| Creator: | Daily Milwaukee News |
| Pub Data: | Daily Milwaukee News. 12 Novemeber 1865. (microfilm P24769) |
| Citation: | "Negro Suffrage in Wisconsin." Daily Milwaukee News (12 November 1865). Online facsimile at: http://wisconsinhistory.org/turningpoints/search.asp?id=1384; Visited on: 4/26/2024 |
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