A Right Not a Privilege

This book examines how former Confederates, black men, and women navigated competing claims to suffrage during Reconstruction.

This book demonstrates how the vote has not been considered a 'right' for much of US history, but as a much contested 'privilege.' It is for students and scholars of the US Civil War, African American history, and women's history, and general readers interested in current debates over voting.Americans consider voting a right. But for much of United States history, voting has been a privilege granted by the states, and not the federal government. In this important and timely book, Nicole Etcheson reveals how the Civil War dramatically changed suffrage rights. The post-Civil War period saw failed efforts to disfranchise former Confederates. Black men took the opportunity to capitalize on their loyalty and military service to win the vote, but were undermined by violence, fraud, and eventually legal disfranchisement. For women, the Civil War did not advance the women's campaign for suffrage but instead impeded it. This book insightfully weaves together these three movements, revealing how each measured its suffrage claims against those of others, and highlighting the limited role of federal authority over voting rights during this pivotal period.