The 1787 Northwest Ordinance created the Northwest Territory, the first organized incorporated territory of the United States.
Congress enacted the ordinance on July 13, 1787, under the Articles of Confederation. The territory lay north and west of the Ohio River and included land that later became Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and part of Minnesota.
The ordinance established a process for territorial government and eventual statehood. When a territory reached 60,000 free inhabitants, it could apply for admission as a state. It also protected certain civil rights, encouraged public education, and prohibited slavery in the territory, although enforcement and the status of enslaved people remained contested.
The Northwest Territory was not the same as the later Northwest Territories of Canada or the Pacific Northwest. Ohio became the first state formed from it, joining the Union in 1803. The ordinance became an important model for the United States' later territorial expansion.