Virtual Trivia

Question 24: Pass/Fail

April 24, 2021

"The Connecticut Election" Hartford Daily Courant, October 5, 1865.

In the spring of 1865, the General Assembly passed an amendment to the state constitution removing the word “white” in determining who vote. Was this change accepted or rejected by the voters?

Rejected

The change was overwhelmingly rejected by Connecticut voters, and it was Republican votes that secured the amendment’s defeat. The state’s residents may have ultimately supported emancipation, but they were not abolitionists—advocates of black civic equality.
This was the second time that the General Assembly approved striking the word "white" from the qualifications of electors in the state Constitution only to have it voted down. The first attempt was in 1847.