Hedgeman v Board of Registration (1872)

This case was a direct response to adoption of the 14th and 15th amendments. In question were the rights of citizenship for the Canadian born son of American ex-slaves. Michigan supreme court decided that because Hedgeman’s parents who had escaped slavery in Virginia and escaped to Canada, were not U.S. citizens before the 14th amendment was added to the Constitution, neither was he, and consequently he could not vote.

Reference: The Black Laws in the Old Northwest: A Documentary History, by Stephen Middleton, Greenwood Press, 1993.

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