"Let the World Know What We Have Suffered:" Black Testimony at Virginia's 1867-1868 Constitutional Convention

This essay explores the contributions of Black delegates at the Virginia constitutional convention from December 1867 to April 1868, highlighting their struggle for freedom, recognition, and expression in the wake of the Civil War. In 1867, Congress assumed control over Reconstruction in the South and mandated that each state hold a constitutional convention, draft a new constitution, and ratify the 14th Amendment before it could be readmitted to the Union. While an unintended outcome of the decision to include both Black and white delegates in the constitutional conventions, Black delegates to Virginia’s reframed the assembly as a platform from which to testify about the complexities of freedom and the persistent institutional erasures they faced in the postwar era.