What were voting rights/qualifications like in the early United States?

by spontaneous23

Specifically, what restrictions did the federal government put on voting? Did voting change from under the Articles of Confederation to under the Constitution? What were the property/religious qualifications like? Also, how were delegates elected to the Second Continental Congress? Any other related information would be great as well. I'm not too sure if this is a good question to ask, but I've tried to no avail to find good information on this topic. It's especially hard to get info about the Articles of Confederation. Hopefully you guys can help, and thanks ahead of time!

Irishfafnir

Voting rights/qualifications were determined by the individual states not by the Federal government as such there is quite a lot of variation between individual states, although a few generalizations can be made. State laws either required or heavily favored land owners for the right to vote, this is often claimed as only allowing the wealthy landed elite to vote but the reality is in many states more middling farming sorts could vote. Pennsyvlania is the notable out layer allowing for most white males to vote in the 1775/1776 state constitutional convention. Increasingly as time went on voting requirements for whites were lessened and then removed all together in most states with Virginia and North Carolina being the two last holdouts, at the same time movements promoted the popular election of judges,governors, senators and presidential electors with only South Carolina still having state elected presidential electors by 1860 (and there were serious indications that South Carolina was finally willing to enter the 19th century). If you have further questions I can do my best to answer, but even studying political history it can be difficult to be knowledgeable with each state's factions and inter-state political battles.

I went over Virginia's property requirements and offered some sources in a recent bad history thread which you may find useful.