Mar 25, 2021 - Sale 2562

Sale 2562 - Lot 334

Price Realized: $ 1,625
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 600 - $ 900
(RECONSTRUCTION.) Jerome Nelson Wilson; photographer. Stereoview of "First Colored Vote, Savannah, Nov. 3, 1868." Pair of albumen photographs, 3 x 3 inches, on original mount, 3 1/4 x 6 1/2 inches, with photographer's small backmark, and manuscript captions on recto and verso; minimal wear and soiling. Savannah, GA, 3 November 1868
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The 1868 presidential election was the first in which the freed slaves of the South were able to participate. The continued Union troop presence through much of the south ensured a strong Black vote and resulted in numerous pioneering elected officials, although the Ku Klux Klan managed to suppress the vote in Georgia--one of the few Southern states where Republican war hero Ulysses S. Grant did not win a majority.

This photograph shows a crowd of Savannah voters lined up around an enormous banner for the Grant ticket. It is a well-known photograph, but the Library of Congress copy identifies it only as "Election scene." This example bears a contemporary caption reading "first colored vote," and places the date on Election Day, which adds to its significance. Many of the massed voters in the far distance do appear to be Black. At least one of the dozen-plus men perched on fence posts in the foreground appears to be white. Perhaps they were Klan "election observers," or perhaps they were just enjoying a sunny fall afternoon.