The First Vote - Poor Freedman | Reconstruction 360

This new voter has very little money or belongings, but he has gained his freedom. After passage of the Reconstruction Acts, thousands of politically energized freedmen, rich and poor, registered to vote, aligning themselves overwhelmingly with Republicans.

Reconstruction 360 uses a 360 degree video platform as a storytelling device that lets the audience step inside pivotal Reconstruction events. By clicking on icons within the 360 video the user can access short documentaries that offer the perspectives of multiple characters, historians and descendants. Reconstruction 360 also includes lesson plans, curriculum standards and primary documents. In this module, The First Vote, join a group of new African American voters at a polling station in Virginia in 1867. Black and white U.S. Army soldiers are serving as poll workers, since the state of Virginia is under federal military rule, and two Confederate Army veterans are not pleased.