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.

[John Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating book on both the sad story of voter suppression in the 1800’s and the brave account of so many African Americans fighting for the right to vote against implausible odds. Many political people think of voter suppression as something that occurred in the last few decades and the civil rights movement as an occurrence in the 1960’s or perhaps a couple of decades earlier. This book is a quick read to show others that the struggle for equal justice, especially for the right to vote and the right to access of education, has been in existence since the start of our country. Sheffield makes the book more powerful since it focuses not on large cities with scores of Blacks fighting for the right to vote but rural Ohio with few African Americans and even less allies. He uncovers so many brave, American heroes in the quest to make America live up to our stated ideals.

With a margin of one vote, Ohio reserved the right to vote at it’s first Territorial Convention after careful consideration. The first vote was 19 to 15 to allow “all male negroes and mulattoes” to vote but when the vote was reconsidered four days later, it was a tied vote – 17 to 17 – and the president of the convention, Edward Tiffin, voted to deny Blacks the right to vote. Ironically that first convention included one Black man, Christopher Malbone, a resident of the Marietta region.

The issue did not go away. Blacks contested the early decision and won an Ohio Supreme Court case at the end of 1867 allowing people of color to vote if they had “white blood” in their heritage. It was widely covered in newspapers when papers were affiliated with the two major political parties. Sheffield chronicles how mixed race and Black men throughout the state pressed for their rights in courts and at the ballot box, only to be frustrated in exercising their basic right. Blacks continued to try to vote and whites constantly turned them away. Some people of color went to court, sometimes winning. In 1863, Jeremiah Fisher, a mixed-race man, filed a lawsuit against a Knox Township trustee for disenfranchising him. Fisher won. Yet, Preston Smith from St. Clair Township sued when he was rejected from voting and lost when his case was dismissed.

The book is rich in the history of rural Ohio’s treatment of people of color, mentioning that Zanesville had “colored nights,” permitting African Americans and mixed-race Ohioans to participate at entertainment venues, like their skating rink, normally reserved for whites only. In Circleville, students who were not white were steered to a segregated school, as was the case in most schools around the state.

It is ironic that Ohio resisted allowing people of color to vote given our rich history of operating the Underground Railroad, having more than our share of brave people serving in the Civil War, and being home to both President Grant, who fought for more freedoms a Civil War general and president and Senator John Sherman who was also a Civil War general then a senator representing our state and authoring civil rights legislation. Ohio first voted against the Fourteenth Amendment allowing people of color to vote. It only approved the legislation by one vote when it was going to take place. (Sheffield reminds us that most southern states had to vote for the amendment to be allowed back in the United States, although Kentucky never voted for the rights of Blacks to vote because they had not left the Union therefore did not have the restrictions upon them.) Like with nearly all political fights, increasing the electorate was also about power with the Republicans then wanting to expand their base and the Democrats fighting both out of discrimination and power.

The book reports on the various celebrations held by Blacks around the state to celebrate the passage of the life-changing amendment. Democratic leaders had their newspapers stirring up hatred and planned to resist the new law of fairness. The book reports that 175 Black voters in Circleville were turned away from exercising their new democratic votes. This opposition to the law lead to a Congressional Hearing. A court case went to the Cincinnati Court in Cincinnati from nearby Lawrence County when Jacob Stewart and Jupiter Wilkinson were turned away from voting, leading to Lewis Canter serving a month in jail after a jury trial, the least amount of time the law provided; the jury asked for mercy despite Canter threatening violence. This was progress, considering that in 1842, Thomas West had a case turned against him when he sued to be able to vote and he was fined and thrown in jail.

This is a quick read that will result in me thinking more about it than the time it took me to read it. Sheffield adds in more flare than the sources strictly permits because he tries to provide us with more of the feelings people of color might have when taking on white power structures, where the balance of power is so unfair. He treats us to many Ohio heroes of democracy that are not in other history books – Jack Graham (first Black City Councilman in Coshocton), Christopher Malbone (the only man of color on the Ohio Territorial Convention committee), Louisa Harmon (the Meigs Township teacher who refused to evict a student for not being white), Colonel C.J. Gibeaut (a Meigs Township trustee who, as an attorney, represented a father who fought to allow his child to stay in school despite being non-white), Charles Lucas (who was the first person of color who attempted to vote in Meigs Township in 1853), Willis Haithcock (a Civil War veteran who fought f the right to vote in Circleville and denied because he was non-white), and so many more mentioned above and others in the book.

Glad I found this book to read it right before our country’s 250th anniversary to remind us of our past struggles – and future ones to make America a more perfect union.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a native Ohioan, living here my entire life, and a White man, this is a disheartening read. One wants to think much better of one’s forbearers, particularly with Ohio contributing so many men to the Civil War and the White House. And yet…

I remember my own amazement and positivity seeing the election results showing Ohio went for Barack Obama. I felt hopeful that Ohioans had turned the tide on its past.

It hasn’t we’ve since learned and this book shows just how deeply rooted our collective flaws are set. It is so ugly and so much more work remains still today.