Northwest Ordinance

Examples of Northwest Ordinance in the following topics:

• Land Policy under the Confederation

  • The Confederation Congress' Land Ordinance and Northwest Ordinance had a lasting impact on US history.
  • The Land Ordinance of 1785 established the general practices of land surveying in the west and northwest.
  • The Natural Rights provisions of the Northwest Ordinance also foreshadowed the Bill of Rights, the first 10 amendments to the Constitution.
  • Many of the concepts and guarantees of the Northwest Ordinance were incorporated into the Constitution and Bill of Rights.
  • The language of the Northwest Ordinance prohibited slavery, but emancipation of slaves already held by settlers in the territory was not included.

• Land Ordinances and the Northwest Territory

  • The Northwest Ordinance established the precedent for expansion westward across North America with the admission of new 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 primary effect of the Northwest Ordinance was the creation of the Northwest Territory as the first organized territory of the United States out of the region south of the Great Lakes, north and west of the Ohio River, and east of the Mississippi River.
  • On August 7, 1789, President George Washington signed the Northwest Ordinance of 1789 into law after the newly created U.S.
  • Explain the economic motivation for passing the Land Ordinance of 1784

• Slavery in the North

  • The first U.S. region to abolish slavery was the Northwest Territory under the Northwest Ordinance of 1787.
  • After the Northwest Ordinance, Massachusetts abolished slavery in its state constitution, and several other northern states followed suit by drafting statutes that provided for gradual emancipation.
  • The Northwest Ordinance was also a free territory, though it was not yet incorporated as a state.

• 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.
  • The Northwest Territory had long been desired for expansion by colonists.
  • This ordinance established the example that would become the basis for the Northwest Ordinance three years later.
  • Many of the concepts and guarantees of the Ordinance of 1787 were incorporated in the U.S.
  • In two articles, the Northwest Ordinance mentions the Native Americans within this region:

• 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 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 Congress of the Confederation enacted the Northwest Ordinance in 1787 to provide for the administration of the territories and set rules for admission as a state.
  • Congress affirmed the Ordinance with slight modifications under the Constitution.
  • The territory included all the land of the United States west of Pennsylvania and northwest of the Ohio River.

• Finance

  • 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

• Congress of the Confederation

  • Nonetheless, the Congress still managed to pass significant laws, most notably the Northwest Ordinance.

• In Quest of Freedom

  • Through the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, the Congress of the Confederation prohibited slavery in the territories northwest of the Ohio River.

• Incorporating Louisiana

  • Louisiana was incorporated into the Union in a fashion similar to the Old Southwest (Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama), and to a lesser extent, the Old Northwest (Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota).
  • Unlike the Old Northwest, where the Northwest Ordinance prohibited slavery, Louisiana already boasted an active plantation regime in its southern tier.

• Territorial Government

  • It subdivided several territories, preparing them for statehood, following the precedents set by the Northwest Ordinance of 1787.
  • In acquiring, preparing, and distributing public land to private ownership, the federal government generally followed the system set forth by the Land Ordinance of 1785.