Which 1787 law created the Northwest Territory and set a process for admitting new states?

The Northwest Ordinance created the Northwest Territory and set a process for admitting new states in 1787.

Formally titled An Ordinance for the Government of the Territory of the United States, North-West of the River Ohio, it was enacted by the Confederation Congress on July 13, 1787. The territory lay north of the Ohio River and east of the Mississippi River, including land that later became several Midwestern states.

The ordinance established a territorial government and described stages through which a territory could become a state. It also protected certain civil rights, encouraged education, and prohibited slavery in the Northwest Territory, although enforcement and the legal status of slavery involved complex historical realities.

The law provided a model for orderly expansion rather than simply adding frontier lands to existing states. Congress reaffirmed it in 1789 under the new Constitution. Its statehood framework influenced later American territorial policy and the admission of states across the continent.