Land Ordinance of 1784

Examples of Land Ordinance of 1784 in the following topics:

• Land Ordinances and the Northwest Territory

  • The Land Ordinance of 1784, as outlined by Thomas Jefferson, called for the land west of the Appalachian Mountains, north of the Ohio River, and east of the Mississippi River to be divided into separate states.
  • The Ordinance of 1785 put the 1784 resolution in operation by providing a mechanism for selling and settling the land, while the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 addressed political needs.
  • The Mississippi River, along with the Ohio River and the Appalachian Mountains, were the boundaries of the 1784 Land Ordinance
  • The new United States Territory that included the Appalachian mountains and the Ohio and Mississippi rivers was the subject of the 1784 Land Ordinance
  • Explain the economic motivation for passing the Land Ordinance of 1784

• Settlers and the West

  • The Northwest Ordinance foreshadowed the rights of individuals in the Bill of Rights and prohibited slavery north of the Ohio River.
  • In 1784, Thomas Jefferson, a delegate from Virginia, proposed that the states should relinquish their particular claims to all the territory west of the Appalachians, and the area should be divided into new states of the Union.
  • The Congress of the Confederation modified the proposal, passing it as the Land Ordinance of 1784.
  • Many of the concepts and guarantees of the Ordinance of 1787 were incorporated in the U.S.
  • Examine how the Land Ordinance of 1789 shaped the development of the West and the debate over slavery and expansion

• Congress and the West

  • The Land Ordinance of 1785 was adopted by the United States Congress in May 1785 to do just that.
  • The Ordinance of 1784 was a resolution written by Thomas Jefferson calling for Congress to take action.
  • However, the 1784 resolution did not define the mechanism by which the land would become states, or how the territories would be governed or settled before they became states.
  • The Ordinance of 1785 put the 1784 resolution in operation by providing a mechanism for selling and settling the land, while the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 addressed political needs.
  • The territory included all the land of the United States west of Pennsylvania and northwest of the Ohio River.

• Land Policy under the Confederation

  • The Confederation Congress' Land Ordinance and Northwest Ordinance had a lasting impact on US history.
  • The US Congress adopted the Land Ordinance of 1785 to facilitate that sale.
  • Land west of the Appalachians, north of the Ohio River, and east of the Mississippi River was to be divided into 10 separate states.
  • The Land Ordinance of 1785 established the general practices of land surveying in the west and northwest.
  • Many of the concepts and guarantees of the Northwest Ordinance were incorporated into the Constitution and Bill of Rights.

• Jefferson, Slavery, and Race

  • He was the son of a prominent slaveholder and land speculator in Virginia.
  • When Jefferson turned 21, he inherited 5,000 acres of land and 52 slaves.
  • On March 1, 1784, Jefferson submitted to Continental Congress the Report of a Plan of Government for the Western Territory.
  • While the Northwest Ordinance prohibited slavery in the territory north of the Ohio River, it did not free those slaves held by settlers already in the territory.
  • From mid-1784 through 1789, Jefferson lived in Paris as the U.S. envoy and minister to France.

• Impact of the Articles of Confederation

  • The Land Ordinance of 1785 and Northwest Ordinance created a territorial government, set up protocols for the admission of new states and the division of land into useful units and set aside land in each township for public use.
  • The Land Ordinance of 1785 established both the general practices of land surveying in the west and northwest and the land ownership provisions used throughout the later westward expansion beyond the Mississippi River.
  • The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 also made great advances in the abolition of slavery.
  • By the Land Ordinance of 1785, these were surveyed into the now familiar squares of land called the "township" (36 square miles), the "section" (one square mile), and the "quarter section" (160 acres) .
  • By the Land Ordinance of 1785, these were surveyed into the now familiar squares of land called the "township" (36 square miles), the "section" (one square mile), and the "quarter section" (160 acres).

• The Treaty of Fort Stanwix

  • The Treaty of Fort Stanwix was a treaty signed in October 1784 between the United States and its Native Americans at Fort Stanwix (located in present-day Rome, New York).
  • In this treaty, the Iroquois Confederacy ceded all claims to the Ohio territory, a strip of land along the Niagara river, and all land west of the mouth of Buffalo creek.
  • A series of treaties and land sales between these tribes and the United States soon followed:
  • 1797 Treaty of Big Tree with the Iroquois for lands in New York State west of the Genesee River
  • The map shows Pennsylvania and the territory involved in the two purchases of 1768 and 1784.

• Powers of the American Government Under the Articles of Confederation

  • The Articles of confederation gave few but important powers of diplomacy to the American government.
  • The Land Ordinance of 1785 established the general land survey and ownership provisions used throughout later American expansion.
  • The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 noted the agreement of the original states to give up western land claims and cleared the way for the entry of new states .
  • The wartime promises of bounties and land grants to be paid for service were not being met.
  • The Northwest Ordinance was one of the few accomplishments under the Articles of Confederation.

• Toward Free Labor

  • Indentured servitude was a form of unfree labor used to meet the great demand for workers in the early years of colonial settlement.
  • At the end of the indenture, the young person was given a new suit of clothes and was free to leave.
  • Displaced from their land and unable to find work in the cities, many young people signed contracts of indenture and took passage to the Americas.
  • In Massachusetts, religious instruction in the Puritan way of life was often part of the condition of indenture, and people tended to live in towns.
  • A proposed amendment to the Northwest Ordinance of 1784 that would have outlawed both slavery and indentured servitude.

• Finance

  • Discord between the states and the federal government over taxation and trade further weakened the legitimacy of the Articles of Confederation.
  • Under the Articles of Confederation, Congress was denied any powers of taxation: it could only request money from the states.
  • Federal assumption of the states' war debts became a major issue in the deliberations of the Constitutional Convention.
  • Tracts in Ohio that were surveyed, all in the 18th century, into townships with individual sections numbered by the procedures of the Land Ordinance of 1785
  • Identify the economic concerns of the United States after the American Revolution