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For most historians, the experiment of a central government of the United States under the Articles of Confederation was a failure as the U.S. Constitution eventually replaced the government. Nevertheless, the most effective actions of the Articles of Confederation were the Northwest Ordinances, three acts passed by Congress designating how the Northwest Territory would be governed, sold to settlers, and organized into states. What were the Northwest Ordinances? And what were their lasting effects on the creation of the United States?
Northwest Ordinances: Three land ordinances passed in 1784, 1785, and 1787 by the Congress of the Articles of Confederation outlined the process through which the government could sell land in the Northwest Territory to settlers, and formal governments organized and outlined the process for a territory to become a state in the union.
The Articles of Confederation government had some diplomatic issues regarding the territory north of the Ohio River. The United States had acquired the land from Great Britain in the Treaty of Paris in 1783, and state land cessions placed the domain of the territory into congressional jurisdiction.
Ignoring the land claims of indigenous tribes in the area, such as the Shawnee, Chippewa, Ottawa, and Potawatomi, Congress began to organize the territory bounded by the Great Lakes, Mississippi River, and the Ohio River.
The map below shows the Northwest Territory in green, the boundaries of the states that would come out of the Northwest Territory, and a brief description of how the land would be parceled out to prospective settlers and farmers based on the Northwest Ordinances.
Source: Bryan, D. (2012, April 8). The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 and its Effects. American History USA. https://www.americanhistoryusa.com/northwest-ordinance-1787-effects/
Ordinances passed by the Congress of the Articles of Confederation in 1784, 1785, and 1787 outlined the process through which the government could sell land in the Northwest Territory to settlers. Formal governments organized and outlined the process for a territory to become a state in the union.
Drafted by Thomas
This map by Jay Amos Barrett from 1891, shows the divisions proposed in Jefferson’s draft of the Ordinance of 1784. Source: Wikimedia Commons (public domain) Jefferson, the Ordinance of 1784 proposed that the states secede their land claimed west of the Appalachian Mountains and divided the region into territories that could become states as their population grew. These territories would be self-governing until they could meet the requirements for statehood. In addition, Jefferson drafted five articles to structure and govern the region:
Any new states created from the territory would hold the same status in the United States as the original 13 states.
States created from the territory would be a permanent part of the United States.
The territories would be obligated to pay their share of the national debt.
The self-government of the territories must be a form of republican government.
The final article banned slavery in the territory, but that article was denied ratification by one vote.
The Land Ordinance of 1785 promoted settlement in the Northwest Territories by mandating a quick rectangular-grid system of surveying and by encouraging large-scale land purchases. The ordinance specified a minimum price of one dollar per acre. The parcels of land were sold in single blocks of 23,040 acres each, pricing out the middle class and poor farmers. The rest of the properties, divided into 640 acres, were sold to mainly well-off farmers. In addition, the sale of the land would be one of the only sources of revenue for the federal government, as the Articles of Confederation did not allow Congress to levy taxes or tariffs.
The most crucial Ordinance in terms of lasting influence on the United States. Made up of fourteen sections and six articles, the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 sub-divided the territory, laid the foundation for funding public schools, established how the territory would become a state, protected natural rights, and banned slavery in the Northwest Territory.
The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 | |
Territorial Division | The Ordinance created the territories that would eventually become the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin. |
Public Education | The Ordinance earmarked funds from the sale of lands to support a system of public schools for religious and moral teachings. |
Territorial Governance | The Ordinance specified that Congress would appoint a governor and judges to administer each new territory until the population reached 5,000 free white adult men. Once a territory reached that population threshold, the territory would hold elections for a territorial legislature. |
Path to Statehood | The Ordinance stipulated that once a territory reached 60,000 in population, the elected legislature could draft a republican constitution and apply to join the United States, using the Ordinance of 1784 to ensure equal footing with the original states. |
Protection of Natural Rights | Even before the creation of the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights, the Ordinance- through charters- guaranteed property rights, protected the freedom of religion and the separation of church and regional governance, protected due process rights, and banned excessive fines, and cruel or unusual punishments. |
Abolished Slavery in the region | Article 6 of the Ordinance forbade slavery or involuntary servitude in the territory. Even with efforts in the 1820s to legalize slavery in some states from the territory, the courts upheld the Ordinance. |
The land ordinances of the 1780s are an outstanding and enduring achievement of the Congress of the Articles of Confederation. They are some of the only laws passed by Congress under the Articles that still influence governance in the United States today.
Public education funding through land sales became the basis of how many public school districts in the United States fund themselves to this day through land and property taxes. The system of applying for statehood in the Ordinance of 1787 is the same system used today for territories of the United States to seek admission into the Union. The basic protections of natural rights in the ordinances became the basis, and some amended verbatim, of the Bill of Rights of the U.S. Constitution.
The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 and its provision banning slavery would perpetuate and extend the geographical division between slave and free regions of the United States that would haunt the nation in the 1800s.
Because the ordinance forbade slavery in the territory, southern members of Congress pushed for and received guarantees that the southwestern territories - what would become Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi, would allow slavery to maintain a balance of free versus slave state representation in the federal government. The government would duplicate this policy pattern through other territorial ordinances throughout the 1800s. As an enduring legacy of the Ordinance of 1787, the verbiage Article 6, which prohibits slavery and involuntary servitude, became, almost word for word, the 13th Amendment in 1865, banning the practice of slavery in the United States.
Three land ordinances passed in 1784, 1785, and 1787 by the Congress of the Articles of Confederation outlined the process through which the government could sell land in the Northwest Territory to settlers, and formal governments organized and outlined the process for a territory to become a state in the union.
Drafted by Thomas Jefferson, the Ordinance of 1784 proposed that the states secede their land claimed west of the Appalachian mountains and divided the region into territories that could become states as their population grew. The Land Ordinance of 1785 promoted settlement in the Northwest Territories by mandating a quick rectangular-grid system of surveying and by encouraging large-scale land purchases. The most crucial Ordinance in terms of lasting influence on the United States. Made up of fourteen sections and six articles, the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 sub-divided the territory, laid the foundation for funding public schools, established how the territory would become a state, protected natural rights, and banned slavery in the Northwest Territory.
The most crucial Ordinance in terms of lasting influence on the United States. Made up of fourteen sections and six articles, the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 sub-divided the territory, laid the foundation for funding public schools, established how the territory would become a state, protected natural rights, and banned slavery in the Northwest Territory.
The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 and its provision banning slavery would perpetuate and extend the geographical division between slave and free regions of the United States that would haunt the nation in the 1800s.
Because the ordinance forbade slavery in the territory, southern members of Congress pushed for and received guarantees that the southwestern territories - what would become Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi, would allow slavery to maintain a balance of free versus slave state representation in the federal government. The government would duplicate this policy pattern through other territorial ordinances throughout the 1800s. As an enduring legacy of the Ordinance of 1787, the verbiage Article 6, which prohibits slavery and involuntary servitude, became, almost word for word, the 13th Amendment in 1865, banning the practice of slavery in the United States.
The land ordinances of the 1780s are an outstanding and enduring achievement of the Congress of the Articles of Confederation. They are some of the only laws passed by Congress under the Articles that still influence governance in the United States today.
Public education funding through land sales became the basis of how many public school districts in the United States fund themselves to this day through land and property taxes. The system of applying for statehood in the Ordinance of 1787 is the same system used today for territories of the United States to seek admission into the Union. The basic protections of natural rights in the ordinances became the basis, and some amended verbatim, of the Bill of Rights of the U.S. Constitution.
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