Race Formation, Voting Rights, and Democratization in the Antebellum North

Abstract

This article puts forth a theoretical framework for understanding the impact of race on democratization across much of the antebellum North in the United States by looking at the changes in voting rights for blacks in four states. Racial voting restrictions across these state lines, despite different outcomes, can be understood by accounting for three factors: first, how racial conflict is structured through economic competition; second, how partisan competition is structured by racial cleavages; and third, how racial coalition formation is structured through racial narratives and a racialized discourse—what I call a racial belief system. Three factors comprise what is called “race formation.” Racial voting restrictions were enacted in Northern states: (1) when racial conflict took place as an outgrowth of rapid economic and demographic change; (2) when political actors seeking electoral advantage were in a position to successfully prey upon this racial conflict by arousing newly enfranchised white ethnic voters; and (3) when an ascriptive racial belief system became the dominant racial paradigm for understanding citizenship rights for blacks. The article suggests that race formation played a significant role in the democratization of 19th century America. These two races are fastened to each other without intermingling; and they are unable to separate entirely or to combine. The most formidable of all ills that threaten the future of the Union arises from the presence of a black population upon its territory; and in contemplating the causes of present embarrassments, or of future dangers in the United States, the observer is invariably led to this as a primary fact. (Alexis de Tocqueville1)