July 21, 1619
Earlier in the year, Polish artisans, brought to the new Jamestown Colony in Virginia to make pitch, tar, rosin and potash, went on strike to get the right to vote, which was only granted to white males of English descent. On this day, the courts enfranchised them: “Upon some dispute of the Polonians resident in Virginia, it was now agreed (notwithstanding any former order to the country) that they shall be enfranchised, and made as free as any inhabitant there whatsoever . . “
