Students in His360 "Doing Genealogy as a Historian" (Fall 2019) did an informal sampling of the 1870 census to find potential African-American voters after the ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment.
Our goal was to "meet" people who we would not
otherwise have come across through reading secondary sources or in the
course of our genealogical research. We chose names randomly for a
few ex-Confederate states, and we looked for African-American neighbors
to white families we were researching in the midwest. Chance
Horrell, Rebekah Jones, Allison Reardon, and Selina Perla contributed
research.
A sampling of potential African-American voters in ex-Confederate states:
Mingo Goodwin, aged 30, was a farm laborer in Wateree, Kershaw County, South Carolina. He was married to Susan, aged 25, with whom he had 4 children, Stuart aged 7, Agnes aged 5, Phoebe aged 4, and Patsey aged 2. Mingo is surrounded by black and biracial families who are also farm laborers, so they are presumably working on the same farm. Mingo is also neighbors to another Goodwin, Benjamin Goodwin, a biracial man aged 27, with his wife Louisa, aged 40. It is possible they are related, or worked on the same farm as slaves, taking the same last name as their master.
Tom Jones, of Lafayette County, Mississippi, was born in 1823 in South Carolina. He moved to Mississippi sometime between 1823 to 1870. He lives with his wife Mollie and their 7 children. He could not read or write, and he was a farmer. His personal estate was worth 300 dollars. Since he was over the age of 21, he may have been able to vote.
Samuel Bagby, of Buckingham County, Virginia, was 40 in the 1870 U.S. census. His wife's name was Kate, and she was 35. He was a farmer, and his wife kept house. His entire family was biracial, and they had 7 children from the ages of 2 to 19. They were all born in Virginia, and they are listed as not being able to read or write. It does list Samuel as a male citizen.
Lack Harris, of Harrison, Texas, was born in Kentucky and was 42 years old in 1870. He was married to Matilda Harris, 35, born in South Caroline, and they had six children ranging in ages from two to twenty-one. Lack was a farm laborer, and Matilda kept house. No one in the family could read or write.
African Americans living near the white midwestern families we've been studying this term:
Wallace K. Gipson, or Wallis Gibson as he appears in the 1870 census, was living in New Orleans, Louisiana, with his parents, Edward and Alice, along with his siblings, Jessie and Elisabeth.2 His father, Edward was a carpenter. The Gibson family was surrounded by only white families. The nearest black male of voting age is Simon Shovest, aged 30. He also resides in New Orleans Ward 11, Orleans, Louisiana. He is living with his wife, Sarah, aged 23, and his son, John, aged 7. Simon, like Edward Gibson, is a carpenter, and his wife, Sarah, is a seamstress. The census records the Shovest family's neighbors as mostly black and biracial. The German immigrant family of Hans Christian is the only white family nearby.
According to the 1870 census, Lorenzo Matson was living in Cass, Richland County, Ohio. There were no African Americans listed near him on the census roll. However, there were some African Americans who lived in Richland County, Ohio. They lived primarily in the Mansfield wards and Springfield.
There were no black people found to be living within a few census pages of the Colliers. James M. Terrell lived in the same county as the Colliers in the 1870 U.S. census. His mother, Marinda Terrell was keeping house for a white family at the time. His mother was 25 and he was 10. His mother was born in Indiana, but he was born in Michigan. The white family she kept house for was the Pfalzgraff family.
We could locate no black men in Pendleton, Kentucky (where the Yeltons were living in 1870). The closest African Americans we located were in Columbia. Ben Smith, was 57 years old and a Kentucky native. He was married to Mahala Smith, 62, who was also a Kentucky native. They had no children living at home. He was a farmer, and she kept house; neither could read or write.
Sources
1870 United States Census, Wateree, Kershaw, South Carolina, digital image s.v. “Mingo Goodwin,” Ancestry.com.
1870 United States Census, New Orleans Ward 11, Orleans, Louisiana, digital image s.v. “Wallis Gibson,” Ancestry.com.
1870 United States Census, New Orleans Ward 11, Orleans, Louisiana, digital image s.v. “Simon Shovest,” Ancestry.com.
1870 United States Federal Census, Township 7, Lafayette county, Mississippi, digital image s.v “Tom Jones,” Ancestry.com.
1870 United States Federal Census, Cass, Richland County, Ohio, digital image s.v. “Lorenzo Matson,” Ancestry.com.
1870 United States Census, Francisco, Buckingham County, Virginia, digital image s.v. "Samuel Bagby," Ancestry.com.
1870 United States Census, Lawrenceburg, Dearborn County, Indiana, digital image s.v. "James M. Terrell," Ancestry.com.
1870 United States Census, Precinct 4, Harrison, Texas, digital image s.v. “Lack Harris,” Ancestry.com.
1870 United States Census, Columbia, Adair, Kentucky, digital image s.v. “Ben Smith,” Ancestry.com.