1868 Constitution

On display until April 30, 2018, North Carolina’s original 1868 Constitution, the first to grant rights and privileges to newly freed persons, was on loan from the State Archives of North Carolina. It was on display inside our signature permanent exhibit, The Story of North Carolina, in the Hope, Fear, and Freedom gallery.

To meet the demands of Congressional Reconstruction, North Carolina had to enact a new state constitution that gave voting rights to the freedmen. The state also had to accept the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution—outlawing slavery and defining blacks as American citizens.