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In the election selecting Rufus Putnam and Ephraim Cutler as delegates to the convention, a black servant of Colonel Israel Putnam, Christopher Malbone, also known as Kit Putnam, was permitted to cast his ballot in the District of Marietta. It was considered to have been the first vote cast by a free black African in the Northwest Territory.
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David McCullough (The Pioneers: The Heroic Story of the Settlers Who Brought the American Ideal West)