[pfflier]

The first voters were freemen. White landowners. Not even all whites were given the vote and certainly not women of any color.

[Verginius Rufus]

During the colonial period the voters would have been white male landowners, but in the 19th century more and more states did away with the property requirement. I think by the time of Andrew Jackson's presidency that had largely disappeared (maybe South Carolina still had it). Colonial Maryland barred Catholics from voting--that only changed in 1776.

Some states in the early Republic allowed free black men to vote--even a slave state like Tennessee (until it adopted a new constitution in the 1830s). New Jersey let some women vote in the early 1800s (I think they may have had to own property). That did not last too long--maybe a couple of decades.

Alexis de Tocqueville was in Philadelphia on election day and noticed that no black men were coming to the polls--he was told they had the right to vote (but were afraid to exercise that right).