The Northwest Ordinance prohibited slavery in the Northwest Territory during the founding era commemorated by America250.
Congress adopted the ordinance on July 13, 1787, under the Articles of Confederation. It organized the territory north of the Ohio River and east of the Mississippi River, an area that later became the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin, plus part of Minnesota.
The ordinance created a path from territorial government to statehood. It also protected religious liberty, encouraged public education, and recognized certain legal rights. Its sixth article prohibited slavery in the territory, although it did not immediately free enslaved people already held there.
The Northwest Ordinance became an important model for later territorial laws. It is sometimes confused with the Missouri Compromise of 1820, which addressed slavery’s expansion much later and in a different geographic context.