This chapter is a brief history of the nineteenth-century efforts to expand voting and other political rights, interspersed with analysis of key literary texts in which the question of voting rights is a palpable concern, even though it is sometimes not overtly addressed. It takes as its starting point an early nineteenth-century shift in ideas about qualifications for suffrage, during which the prerequisite of land ownership was replaced by the qualities of “virtue and intelligence.” While this shift ensured almost universal white male suffrage by the 1840s, it also provided an opening – albeit a problematic one – for white women and some African American men and women to agitate for enfranchisement. This chapter demonstrates that literature from the 1830s until the early twentieth century reflected and often intervened in the conversation about the “nature” of women and black men, and whether or not they were suited for integration into the public sphere and specifically into the political realm through voting. Authors such as Margaret Fuller, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, and Charles Chesnutt (among many others) represented the women’s suffrage and black suffrage movements in ways designed to change readers’ ideas about the “virtue and intelligence” of the disenfranchised.

The organization of a loyal government on a free-state basis in Louisiana in early 1864 under Lincoln’s ten-percent plan. Contrary to the free-state Unionists’ plan, General Nathaniel Banks orders an election for state executive officers before holding a constitutional convention to abolish slavery. In the campaign that follows, free-state Unionists split into “radical” and “moderate” factions, primarily over black political and legal rights but also over Banks’s interference. Conservative Unionists in Louisiana continue their campaign to restore Louisiana as a slave state, but Congress refuses to seat claimants elected in November 1863. Free-state moderate Michael Hahn is elected Unionist governor in March and takes office. In the planning for a state constitutional convention to abolish slavery, New Orleans free people of color advocate for voting rights, and Lincoln, after meeting with two black leaders, “privately” suggests to Hahn that Louisiana adopt limited black suffrage.

During fall 1865, Mississippi elects new government under Andrew Johnson’s policy, and governments in Tennessee, Arkansas, and Louisiana conduct elections and continue the process of Reconstruction. Louisiana Unionists organize into Republican party and advocate black suffrage. Mississippi is first former rebellious state to enact “black code” and to define freedom for the former slaves, prompting protests from black Mississippians, and it refuses to ratify Thirteenth Amendment. African American leaders in Arkansas hold convention in Little Rock calling for political and legal equality. Thirteenth Amendment becomes operative in early December 1865, as Thirty-Ninth Congress convenes. Fears of “Christmas Insurrection Scare” become manifest, though for different reasons, among both black and white Southerners.

Under Andrew Johnson’s policy, Mississippi begins process of Reconstruction, while governments of Tennessee, Arkansas, and Louisiana extend and solidify their authority. Freedpeople mobilize and organize to articulate and instantiate freedom, underscored by black convention in Nashville in August 1865 that calls for political and legal equality. Mississippi Reconstruction convention in August is the first such convention held by unreconstructed state under Johnson’s policy. Convention highlighted by acrimonious debate over abolition of slavery. Some delegates express view – articulated by conservative Unionists – that Emancipation Proclamation had only freed slaves but had not abolished slavery, and that Mississippi is under no obligation to abolish slavery as a condition of restoration to the Union. Mississippi abolishes slavery, but process bodes ill for Johnson’s policy.

Following Federal capture of Little Rock, Arkansas Unionists prepare during fall 1863 for free-state convention, to meet in early 1864. Conservative Unionists in Tennessee petition Lincoln to recognize their gubernatorial election, but Federal capture of Chattanooga revives hopes to organize free-state government in Tennessee. Andrew Johnson supports abolition of slavery in Tennessee. Conservative Unionists in Louisiana hold congressional elections in November and send members-elect to Congress. Free-state movement stalls in Louisiana during the fall, and Lincoln places General Nathaniel Banks in charge of organizing free-state government, warning of efforts by proslavery Unionists to organize a loyal government. “Etheridge Plot” features failed attempt by northern Democrats, along with southern and border-state conservative Unionists, to seize control of organizing closely divided House of Representatives in December 1863. Thirteenth Amendment introduced into Congress. Lincoln announces plan for Reconstruction, the ten-percent plan, in December.