What territory did the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 organize?

The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 organized the Northwest Territory. Congress enacted the measure on July 13, 1787, for lands north of the Ohio River and west of Pennsylvania, reaching toward the upper Mississippi River and the Great Lakes.

The territory had been ceded to the United States by Great Britain in the Treaty of Paris. Under the Articles of Confederation, Congress needed a system for governing the region, surveying land, admitting future states, and addressing settlement. The ordinance established a territorial government and a process leading to statehood.

The law created a precedent for admitting new states on an equal footing with the original states rather than expanding existing states westward. It also included protections for religious freedom, jury trials, habeas corpus, and education. Most notably, it prohibited slavery in the territory, although the ordinance did not end slavery throughout the United States.

The Northwest Ordinance is distinct from the Land Ordinance of 1785, which primarily established a system for surveying and selling western land. The First Congress reaffirmed the 1787 ordinance in 1789.