"There were 21,000 free Negroes in North Carolina in 1835, 4,000 of whom were entitled then to vote." After 1835 Negroes were not allowed to vote there again until after the War.
The Constitution of Tennessee[11] of 1834 provided that no person should be disqualified from voting in any election who was then by the laws of the State a competent witness in a court of justice against a white person. One cannot tell how many Negroes were qualified to vote under this provision. The Constitution of Wisconsin[12] of 1848 limited the privilege of voting to white persons, but the Supreme Court[13] of that State held in 1866 that suffrage had been extended to Negroes by a vote of the people at the general election on November 6, 1849.
Several States which at first allowed Negro freemen to vote later withdrew the privilege. Until the Revolution, they were allowed to vote in every State except Georgia and South Carolina. Between 1792 and 1834, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and Kentucky denied the suffrage to Negroes. As has been seen, North Carolina permitted as restricted Negro suffrage until 1835. New Jersey took the suffrage from the Negro in 1807, Connecticut in 1814, and Pennsylvania in 1838; and Tennessee, in 1834, limited the right to those Negroes who were competent as witnesses against white persons. New York, in 1821, required a very high property qualification not required of white persons.[14] Wisconsin alone changed its law so as to allow Negroes to vote on equality with white persons. New York tried twice to do so, but failed each time.
