George Lewis Seaton
George Lewis Seaton, an African American and prominent leader in Alexandria helped Freedmen to obtain Black Suffrage through his work with the Fourth Ward Radicals led by the Republican Party. Seaton became a prominent member of the Republican Fourth Ward Radicals in Alexandria, Virginia on May 1, 1867. Fourth Ward Radical members elected Seaton to the Executive Committee of the Fourth Ward Radicals Club on May 1, 1867. Seaton’s reputation persuaded the Radicals to nominate him to act on the behalf of Freedmen in Alexandria at subsequent conventions. The Radicals nominated Seaton to attend the Republican Convention in Richmond on August 17-18, 1867. Seaton previously served on the Grand Jury to indict Jefferson Davis for treason where he met Underwood. Seaton subsequently chaired a meeting at the First Colored Baptist Church on Alfred Street where Radical Republican John M. Langston advocated for Black Suffrage. He said, “The Colored man is not content when given simple emancipation… he demands the free and untrammeled use of the ballot.” Langston’s speech inspired Alexandria Freedmen such as Seaton to continue to advocate for Black Suffrage.
Seaton became an influential Virginia politician who helped convince the state of Virginia to ratify the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments. Seaton became the Fourth Ward Radical’s President in January 1868 and later elected to a seat on the Virginia General Assembly on July 6, 1869. Seaton received one thousand eight hundred and seven votes out of approximately three thousand five hundred. Virginia voters subsequently ratified the new Virginia state Constitution. Seaton voted in the short session that convened in October 1869 and voted to ratify the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments. Seaton served on the Virginia House of Delegates from 1869 to 1871 and attempted to pass legislation such as school reform, school integration and additional protection for Freedmen beyond suffrage.The Virginia General Assembly successfully ratified the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments on October 8, 1869 in a vote of one hundred and thirty two to zero for the House of Delegates and forty to two in the Virginia Senate. Freedmen in Alexandria demonstrated agency when they elected Seaton to public office to vote to ratify the Reconstruction amendments.