Northwest Territory

Examples of Northwest Territory in the following topics:

• 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 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.
  • The legislation also broke colonial precedent by defining future use of the natural navigation, transportation, and communication routes; it did so in a way that anticipated future acquisitions beyond the Northwest Territories, and established federal policy.
  • The first state created from the Northwest Territory was Ohio, in 1803, at which time the remainder was renamed Indiana Territory.
  • A significant portion of Minnesota was also part of the territory.

• The Northwest Territory

  • The Northwest Indian War (1785–1795) led to further expansion of the United States into American Indian territory.
  • In the Treaty of Paris (1783), Great Britain nominally ceded control of the Northwest Territory (which was primarily occupied by various American Indian tribes) to the United States.
  • The Northwest Indian War, or Little Turtle's War, resulted from conflict between the United States and the Western Confederacy over occupation of the Northwest Territory.
  • Although the Northwest Indian War, known in the U.S.
  • Analyze the competing claims for control of the Northwest Territory in the years following the Revolutionary War

• Congress and the West

  • 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 Northwest of the River Ohio, more commonly known as the Northwest Territory, was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from July 13, 1787, until March 1, 1803, when the southeastern portion of the territory was admitted to the Union as the state of Ohio.
  • Virginia, Massachusetts, New York, and Connecticut then had competing claims on the territory.
  • 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.
  • 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 Congress of the Confederation enacted the Northwest Ordinance in 1787 to provide for administration of the territories and set rules for admission as a state.
  • The prohibition of slavery in the northwest territory had the practical effect of establishing the Ohio River as a boundary between free and slave-holding territories in the region between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River.
  • In the Northwest Territory, various legal and property rights were enshrined and religious tolerance was proclaimed.
  • The language of the Northwest Ordinance prohibited slavery, but emancipation of slaves already held by settlers in the territory was not included.
  • In a conflict sometimes known as the Northwest Indian War, Blue Jacket of the Shawnees and Little Turtle of the Miamis formed a confederation to stop white expropriation of the territory.

• Settlers and the West

  • The Northwest Territory had long been desired for expansion by colonists.
  • In the Northwest Territory, various legal and property rights were enshrined and religious tolerance was proclaimed.
  • In two articles, the Northwest Ordinance mentions the Native Americans within this region:
  • In a conflict sometimes known as the Northwest Indian War, Blue Jacket of the Shawnees and Little Turtle of the Miamis formed a confederation to stop white expropriation of the territory.
  • The territories northwest and southwest of the Ohio River are depicted on this map of the early United States (1783–1803).

• Jay's Treaty

  • John Jay was sent to Britain—with instructions from Hamilton—to secure compensation for captured American ships; to ensure the British leave the northwest outposts they still occupied (despite the terms of the 1783 Treaty of Paris, which recognized this as American territory); and to gain an agreement for American trade in the West Indies.
  • British troops were still occupying forts on U.S. territory in the Great Lakes region (also known as the Northwest Territory) that were recognized as part of American soil by the Treaty of Paris.
  • Overall, the treaty achieved the primary goal of the withdrawal of the British Army from the Northwest Territory of the United States: The British agreed to vacate the six western forts by June 1796.
  • They marshaled their own supporters and shifted the debate toward highlighting American neutrality and the other concessions won from Britain (such as the Northwest Territory and merchant compensations).
  • The map shows major territorial concessions following the Treaty of Paris.

• Slavery in the North

  • The first U.S. region to abolish slavery was the Northwest Territory under the Northwest Ordinance of 1787.
  • This territory was entirely slave-free from its inception and separated by the Ohio River from the South, which was pushing for an expansion of legal slavery into the West.
  • 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.

• Madison's American Indian Policy

  • James Madison's presidency saw the continuation of the American Indian Wars as the United States expanded into and invaded indigenous territory.
  • As European settlers moved west, encroaching on large tracts of Cherokee, Choctaw, Creek, and Chickasaw territory, Madison ordered the U.S.
  • East of the Mississippi River in the Indiana Territory, an intertribal confederacy led by Tecumseh, a Shawnee chief, fought a number of engagements in the Northwest during the period of 1811 to 1812.
  • In the Northwest Territory after the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811, American Indians were pushed off of their tribal lands and replaced entirely by white settlers.
  • British traders and the Spanish government provided supplies to the Red Stick majority due to their shared interest in preventing the expansion of U.S. territory.

• 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).
  • A territory could be proclaimed when a population of 5,000 settlers had been obtained.
  • Unlike the Old Northwest, where the Northwest Ordinance prohibited slavery, Louisiana already boasted an active plantation regime in its southern tier.
  • The question of slavery in the Louisiana Territory was left ambiguous in the north.
  • The Purchase was one of several territorial additions to the U.S.

• Territorial Government

  • The federal government first acquired western territory from other nations or native tribes by treaty, then it sent surveyors to map and document the land.
  • With the war over, the federal government focused on improving the governance of the territories.
  • It subdivided several territories, preparing them for statehood, following the precedents set by the Northwest Ordinance of 1787.
  • Federal involvement in the territories was considerable.
  • "Territorial rings," corrupt associations of local politicians and business owners buttressed with federal patronage, embezzled from Indian tribes and local citizens, especially in the Dakota and New Mexico territories.