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… Blacks [African Americans] bent on remaining in America would naturally seek the right to
vote and, equally as a matter of course, would base their claim in part on the Declaration. In a
rally in support of the Liberty Party in 1840, Albany [New York] blacks contended that denying
them equal franchise with whites contravened [contradicted] the principles of the Declaration
of Independence. Later that year, also in Albany, a state convention of black spokesmen issued
a formal statement which in three instances referred to the Declaration, including its assertion
that governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed. Twenty years later,
in a tract issued for state-wide distribution, “The New York City and County Suffrage Committee
of Colored Citizens,” invoked the Declaration in its plea to the electorate to eliminate the
property requirement for voting imposed only on blacks.…
Source: Benjamin Quarles, “Antebellum Free Blacks and the ‘Spirit of '76’,” The Journal of Negro History,
July 1976 (adapted)
According to Benjamin Quarles, what argument did free African Americans in New York use in justifying
their right to vote?
According to Benjamin Quarles, the main argument that free African Americans in New York used in justifying their right to vote was that there no longer existed a property requirement.
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