All classes read this passage on the Northwest Ordinance:
The Confederation Congress passed the Northwest Ordinance in 1787 to encourage western
migration. Powerful land companies made western expansion a business venture. Speculators
purchased cheap lands that they hoped to sell at a high profit.
To lure settlers, territorial leaders developed a political framework to protect liberty and property.
They secured for settlers in the West religious freedom, protection against cruel and unusual
punishment, and a government unable to seize land for the public good without first offering the
owner just compensation.
The Ordinance of 1787 also prohibited slavery. However, its framers compromised with slaveholders
when they approved a fugitive slave law to force the return of runaway slaves. A controversy
surfaced over how to apply Article 6, which both banned and enforced slavery. Leaders in the
territory, however, successfully made the article a gradual emancipation law.
1. What are the natural water boundaries of the Northwest Territory?
The Great lakes , Ohio RIver, and Mississippi river .
2. Which three states bordered the Northwest Territory to the east?
Pennsylvania , (West) Virginia and New York.
3. The Land Ordinance of 1785 stipulated that the income derived from Section 16 of the 36
sections would be used to support schools. What impact might this feature have on the
settlement of the Northwest Territory?
It would have brought education to women and children NOrth West of AMerica.