1867 Voter Registrations, African-Americans, Alabama

to 1 Sep 1867
Location: United States
Surnames/tags: Black_Heritage Voters

Part of the process of readmittance of the Confederate states to the Union following the Civil War involved affirming U.S. law—including the abolition of slavery and the voting rights of African American men. In order to do this, the former Confederate states would have to hold constitutional conventions to pass new state constitutions. A constitutional convention could only be called by popular vote. On 23 March 1867 the U.S. Congress passed “An Act supplementary to an Act entitled ‘An Act to provide for the more efficient Government of the Rebel States,’ passed March second, eighteen hundred and sixty-seven, and to facilitate Restoration” (40 Stat. 2). The first clause of this act required that, by 1 September 1867, each district would register all male citizens of the United States over the age of twenty-one years that were qualified to vote. In Alabama, this was supervised by the U.S. Army.

The voter registration records contain the following information:

• Name;
• Time of residence in the state, in the county, and in the precinct;
• Place of nativity;
• When and where naturalized;
• Remarks.

The quality of the evidence varied from county to county, precinct to precinct. In some cases, the time of residence is universally recorded as “twelve months” and the place of nativity is no more specific than “United States.” In other cases, the time of residence can be used to determine a precise migration time, and the place of nativity identifies the place of origin. These two factors can help you identify antebellum migration routes. African American families enslaved prior to the Civil War did not have the right to move about on their own. Certainly, some families escaped, but these were the minority. For most families, antebellum migration routes for enslaved families indicate antebellum migration routes for their slave owners.

These are the counties in Alabama for which the records still exist:

• (please add any here that exist and then link to a page for them.)