These state-level campaigns for Black men’s enfranchisement failed everywhere except Rhode Island. There, in 1842, Whig Party leaders allied with African Americans to oppose an insurgent movement seeking to drop property requirements but reserve the vote to white men only. The conflict ended with a new state constitution that permitted Black men to vote on equal terms as white men, while all voters had to meet residency and taxpayer requirements, and naturalized citizens faced more restrictions than the native born.
