Black Voters in the Hudson Valley and the New York Constitutional Convention of 1821
In the spring of 1821, free Black men even in remote rural areas of New York State asserted their desire for full political and civil equality by participating in a vote on whether to hold a state constitutional convention. Among the burning issues projected to be discussed at this convention were the requirements for male suffrage, both Black and white. At the time, there were few race-based voting restrictions, though these were on the rise. However, the looming end of slavery in 1827 raised a red flag for those whites concerned that if not reined in, free Blacks would go too far, too fast.
Voting rolls in the small Hudson Valley town of Coxsackie show that at least 15 Black men voted on the question, presumably in the affirmative. Many of these men had recently been manumitted or aged out of bondage through the state’s gradual emancipation system. However, actually voting required a certificate of freedom verified by white officials, such as the Overseers of the Poor. In the period immediately preceding the April 1821 vote, Pomp Miller, Quassia Reed, and others subjected themselves to the bureaucratic process necessary to secure these certificates, demonstrating their cognizance of the convention’s importance. Applying for these documents, often issued by white men who still held persons in bondage, was no doubt a delicate maneuver. We can imagine that Black men had to demonstrate their competence to participate in the political process while also appearing not too uppity.
Unfortunately, despite lengthy debates and the support of some prominent New York politicians, such as Peter Jay, voters at the convention ultimately secured nearly universal white male suffrage while at the same time placing severe property and residency requirements upon Black men, effectively disenfranching most of them. Instead of moving forward, the clock was turned back on Black male suffrage.
The Black men who had voted in Coxsackie, however, continued to build lives for themselves and their families, often requiring negotiation with the powerful white families who had formerly been their enslavers. Quassia Reed went on to become a prominent member of the Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church of Coxsackie, which still exists. Pomp Miller remained in Coxsackie plying his trade as a cobbler and day laborer. Records show that he frequently borrowed money from prominent whites, including Leonard Bronk, a judge who held people in bondage up until his death in 1827. Due to Pomp Miller’s debts to white creditors at the time of his death in the year following the convention, his widow inherited only $16.31.
This poster presentation will visually display the various certificates of freedom issued for the vote, the handwritten copy of the voter rolls, and the other fragmentary evidence of these men’s lives before and after the constitutional convention. In doing so, it will portray the delicate negotiations required of the recently freed still living among and doing business with their former enslavers.