The right to vote has been a recurring theme in American history. During the colonial times, the right to vote was limited to adult white males who owned property. When the U.S. Constitution was written in 1787, it gave the states the authority to define the right to vote. Women, slaves and even some free blacks were still unable to cast their vote in the polls. Currently in the year 2003 the right of suffrage in the U.S. is enjoyed by all citizens of the age of eighteen regardless of race and gender. This may seem like a great achievement for our nation; not only do we enjoy all of the freedoms that our constitution states, but we have a voice in our government as well. However, for some reason voter turnout has been steadily decreasing in the past few decades. Even though we are all finally "equal" according to the Declaration of Independence, age, gender and social status still defines our voting habits.
During the seventeenth and eighteenth century voting was limited. In 1670 in the Chesapeake Society the House of Burgesses limited voting right to landowners and householders; men of course. This was also the case with the Puritan community, which also required church membership for its voting privileges. Through the years that followed white, property owning, tax-paying men were only allowed to vote. The only exception that was sometimes made was for some widows who owned property. By the time the Declaration of Independence was established it stated that " all "men" are by nature "equally" free and have "certain" inherent right- this of course still had its limitations. Women still could not vote and between 1776-1860, only about 1/3 of the states permitted voting by free black adult males.
As states broadened their electorates by abandoning their original property, tax payment and religion requirements, many added explicitly racialist definitions of the right to vote in their state constitution.
