Poll Book Listing Colored” Voters in 1867″””

A Reconstruction–era poll book from Virginia lists the names of the African Americans from the Third Congressional District, in Southampton County, who cast their votes in the October 22, 1867, election "for and against a [constitutional] Convention and for a delegate to the same." The U.S. Army, which oversaw the election, demanded separate poll lists and voting results for black and white citizens. Nearly 98 percent of eligible African American males voted in the county, while only 56 percent of eligible white voters participated. County voters overwhelmingly approved the convention—1,262 (1,242 African Americans and 20 whites) to 612 (all whites).