The Northwest Ordinance was the 1787 law that organized the territory northwest of the Ohio River and established a path to statehood.
The Confederation Congress adopted the ordinance on July 13, 1787, under the government created by the Articles of Confederation. It covered land that later became all or part of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota.
The ordinance divided the territory into stages of territorial government. When population requirements were met, a territory could draft a constitution and seek admission as a state on equal footing with the existing states. This approach provided a framework for expansion rather than treating new regions as permanent colonies.
The law also protected certain civil liberties, encouraged public education, and prohibited slavery in the Northwest Territory. Its ban did not end slavery nationally, and it did not apply to every future U.S. territory. The Northwest Ordinance is therefore distinct from the Land Ordinance of 1785, which primarily addressed surveying and land sales.