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Ballot Blocked Episode 1: Service, Sacrifice, and Citizenship

An African American solider in Union Army uniform seated with his family
An African American soldier in Union Army uniform sits with his family for a photograph. More than 180,000 African American men served in the United States Colored Troops (USCT) during the Civil War.

Library of Congress

This episode takes us to the 1860s and the period of the Civil War. The nineteenth amendment would not be ratified for another half century, but a lack of voting rights didn’t stop women from being active in civic and political life. In Philadelphia, for example, free African American women played a critical role in supporting the Union Army.

To learn more about this wartime service, we interviewed Dr. Holly A. Pinheiro, Jr. His forthcoming book, The Families’ Civil War, is under contract with the University of Georgia Press. Dr. Pinheiro’s scholarship is focused on free African Americans living in Pennsylvania between about 1850 and 1930. It examines the toll that enlistment in the Union Army took on soldiers and their families. His work also highlights the ways that Black women claimed civil and political rights, despite being denied access to the ballot.

Part of a series of articles titled Ballot Blocked Podcast.

Last updated: October 21, 2024