Online Catalog - State Archives of Florida - Florida Department of State

State Archives of Florida Online Catalog

The Online Catalog allows searching and browsing of information about the Florida State Archives’ holdings of over 48,000 cubic feet of state and local government records and historical manuscripts. The catalog provides descriptions of over 3,400 collections and lists the contents of containers and folders in many of those collections. For assistance with accessing and using State Archives collections, call our Reference Staff at 850.245.6719 or email us at archives@dos.myflorida.com.

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	Record Group Number:	000151
	Series/Collection Number:	.S 98
	Creator:	Florida. Office of Secretary of State.
	Title, Dates:	Voter registration rolls, 1867-1868.
	Amount:	7.00 cubic ft. 2.00 microfilm reel 35 mm.
	Medium Included:
	Organization/Arrangement:	Alphabetical.
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	Biographical/Historical:	To facilitate the return of the former Confederate states to the Union, Congress passed an act on March 23, 1867, instructing U.S. military authorities occupying the South to register all eligible voters, including African-American men. To qualify, a voter had to be male, a citizen of the United States, age 21 or older, and a resident of his county. He also had to swear an oath of allegiance to the United States. Any person who had been a sworn state official before the Civil War but then served as an official in the Confederate government was ineligible to register. These registration rolls were used for two elections. The first election, held November 14-16, 1867, was to determine whether the citizens of Florida desired a state constitutional convention under conditions stipulated by Congress. Voters also chose the delegates who would represent them in this convention. Almost all of the more than 14,000 voters who cast a ballot were in favor of a convention, and 46 delegates were elected to draft the new state constitution. Florida voters returned to the polls in May 1868 and approved the new state constitution drawn up by the convention delegates. Congress in turn approved the new document on June 25, 1868, thereby readmitting Florida to the United States.
	Summary:	The series contains the existing voter registration rolls for 1867-1868 and is particularly significant as this was the first time Black men were allowed to register to vote in Florida. The majority of the voters on these rolls registered prior to the November 1867 election, although about 600 individuals are listed as having registered afterward. The type of information in most volumes includes date, name, race, time of residence in county and state, native (of what state), and naturalization (where, when and how). The series is not complete; only 19 Florida counties are represented of the 39 that existed at the time.
	Finding Aids:	Box listing available. 0
	Additional Physical Form:	This series has been digitized and is available on the Florida memory web site: https://www.floridamemory.com/discover/historical_records/election1867/ Scans of microfilm produced by FamilySearch available at the Archives. Microfilm.
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	Electronic Records Access:	https://www.floridamemory.com/discover/historical_records/election1867/
	Subject Access Fields:	Elections Florida Voter registration Florida Reconstruction Florida African Americans History 1863-1877. Florida Voters' lists. aat Florida Voting registers
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