Although she focuses on Baltimore rather than Philadelphia, @marthasjones_ book, Birthright Citizens, has a lot to add to this conversation. Indeed, it has shaped it!

Also, thank you Black voters in Georgia. For everything. https://twitter.com/wcaleb/status/1324580233534672896

Manigault was born in Haiti in the 1780s. He emigrated to Philadelphia with his father around 1793, the year that Yellow Fever came to town. Manigault's father died in 1795, and he was bound out to a white man named Andrew Seguin until he reached his majority.

Benjamin Manigault voted in Pennsylvania's 1806 election. We know this because he got caught up in Gov. McKean's 1808 impeachment proceedings, which turned on whether or not McKean was correct to invalidate the winner of the 1806 sheriff's election due to voter fraud.

A House committee drew up a list of "96 BAD VOTES" from the 1806 election. Number one on the list was Benjamin Manigault.

Whereas most folks on the list were flagged for being under 21 years old, not having resided in Pennsylvania for 2 years, or not paying taxes, Manigault was flagged first and foremost for being a "mulatto boy." Since he was not white, he could not be naturalized under US law.

As @wcaleb notes in his thread, Black men rarely voted in early 19c Pennsylvania, despite having a technical right to do so. Then in the late 1830s, first the judiciary and then the people, ratifying a new constitution, robbed them of their franchise.

Samuel Breck, whose diary records the badass story of James Forten casting his virtual vote, was a state senator and staunch antislavery advocate. In 1821, 40 years after gradual abolition passed, he proposed immediate emancipation legislation. https://twitter.com/wcaleb/status/1324582867339481088

Breck introduced "An act for the entire abolition of slavery in Pennsylvania" in early 1821. It lost 14-13.

Breck immediately introduced a second act that would have mollified the terms of the gradual abolition bill. It was twisted by amendment and died in committee.

Anyway, I suppose my point is that James Forten, with his wealth and reputation, found ways to exert his influence that were unavailable to working-class men like Benjamin Manigault. And all this was unfolding against a backdrop of slavery's long death in Pennsylvania.

Although she focuses on Baltimore rather than Philadelphia, @marthasjones_ book, Birthright Citizens, has a lot to add to this conversation. Indeed, it has shaped it!

Also, thank you Black voters in Georgia. For everything.