16 November 1807
New Jersey restricts voting to white male citizens
New Jersey
New Jersey’s election statute expressly limited state and county voting to free white male citizens aged twenty-one or older who met its property and county-residence requirements. The law excluded women and free people of color who could previously qualify under the state’s voting rules.
Dates preserve the source’s precision. This entry is part of a selected historical record; its qualifications and sources are retained below.
Context / qualification
The earlier franchise was conditional, not universal suffrage for women or Black residents. The statute’s preamble acknowledges disputes and variation in voting practice. This entry concerns the 1807 act; it does not imply that all otherwise eligible people had previously been able to vote without interference.
Sources
- Howard Zinn, A People’s History of the United States, chapter 6, pp. 110; supplied print pages, edition/year unidentified
- New Jersey election act, passed November 16, 1807, preamble and section 1; Laws of New Jersey (1811), p. 33, excerpt transcribed by the University of Nebraska–Lincoln ↗