John Brown represented Southampton County at the Convention of 1867–1868, called to rewrite Virginia’s constitution. Brown was born enslaved, and before Emancipation his wife and children were sold and taken to Mississippi. How and why he entered politics after the American Civil War (1861–1865) is unknown, but he inspired a remarkable voter turnout during elections for the convention. White moderates who had been Whigs before the war sought African American support for the convention balloting. In an astonishing display of group cohesion, almost 98 percent of registered black men appeared at the polls on October 22, 1867. Brown received all 1,242 black voters to defeat his two white opponents. The turnout and support for Brown was a remarkable event in the county where Nat Turner’s Rebellion of 1831 took place. Brown’s political career did not continue after the convention. He likely never learned to read or write and died sometime between 1900 and 1910.
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