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A Political History Of The Poll Tax In Virginia, 1900-1950, Conley L. Edwards

Master's Theses

The poll tax occupies a unique place in Virginia's suffrage history. Basically a twentieth century device ostensibly originated to provide revenue for the state by requiring payment of a fee before the exercise of the franchise, there was probably no other practice quite as foreign to the expanding suffrage traditions of Virginia's history as the poll tax. The only precursor to this tax was a capitation tax levied intermittently, the first such tax appearing in 1623 in the form of a levy of ten pounds of tobacco to meet the debt arising from defenses against local Indians. Free Negroes and …