False Promises: The Struggle for Black Voting Rights in 1800s Ohio

by Ric S. Sheffield

Brings to life the struggle for Black suffrage in nineteenth-century Ohio In False Promises, the fight for Black voting rights in Ohio comes alive through narratives of men of color who defied the state’s nineteenth-century restrictions on suffrage. Though ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment ostensibly extended the franchise, state election laws still forced men of color into a perilous struggle for full citizenship. Ric S. Sheffield depicts their courage and determination, revealing their humanity through stories of sacrifice, resistance, and hope. Drawing on Saidiya Hartman’s concept of critical fabulation, Sheffield weaves together historical records with imaginative reconstructions of dialogue, setting, and descriptive elements beyond the dusty courthouse pages. Grounded in archival evidence yet reimagined to fill in the silences, these stories recount the lived experiences of those who risked everything to exercise their right to vote. False Promises also connects these historical battles to the present, illustrating how voter-suppression tactics in today’s Ohio have roots in the racial exclusions of the nineteenth century. By exposing the enduring legacy of white supremacist policies, the book challenges the widespread misconception that racial disenfranchisement was solely a southern problem. Ohio’s complex racial history—noted for its role in the Underground Railroad but also for its repressive Black Laws—also includes a fierce and ongoing struggle over the right to vote. Through compelling storytelling, historical analysis, and a reclamation of voices lost to history, False Promises urges readers to reconsider their understanding of democracy and the right to vote.

192 pages, Paperback

Published October 21, 2025

Reviews

[Wyatt strawbridge · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ric Sheffield calls himself a storyteller, and states that he hopes to both preserve, spread, and add life to the stories of black Ohioans who struggled for their right to vote after and before the Fifteenth Amendment. Sheffield does tell stories, he does bring these stories outside the archives they grow dust in, and I do believe his goal of gifting life is occasionally reached too. However, having recently read very fact and statistic heavy accounts of the period, as well as truly speculative works, I am not sure False Promises has decided why it wants to live in between the two.