Talk:Thomas Mundy Peterson

Untitled

that is a cannon bums —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.126.95.99 (talk) 02:35, 7 March 2008 (UTC)

which election?

The article doesn't identify the election. Could someone add it? Teemu Leisti (talk) 04:07, 6 February 2009 (UTC)

Questionable validity

I have heard before that Thomas Mundy Peterson was the first African-American to vote in the United States, but I also have read that 5 New England states allowed blacks to vote before the Civil War. I don't think that Peterson was the first African-American to vote in the United States. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Dwainwr123 (talk • contribs) 22:30, 17 November 2011 (UTC)

The claim in the article is more narrow than Thomas Mundy Peterson being the "first African-American to vote in the United States". Peterson was the first African American to vote under the newly enacted provisions of the 15th Amendment, which both the article and the cited sources accurately reflect. NastyBrutishAndTall (talk) 16:23, 21 May 2012 (UTC)

The article should make clearer that some blacks had in fact voted long before the 15th Amendment was enacted. See Justice Curtis' dissenting opinion in Dred Scott v. Sanford, where he says among other things, "At the time of the ratification of the Articles of Confederation, all free native-born inhabitants of the States of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New [60 U.S. 393, 573] York, New Jersey, and North Carolina, though descended from African slaves, were not only citizens of those States, but such of them as had the other necessary qualifications possessed the franchise of electors, on equal terms with other citizens." [1] Krakatoa (talk) 03:18, 2 February 2014 (UTC)