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Student Reading 16a: The Northwest Ordinance

Ohio was known as the Ohio Country before it became a state. In 1787, the

Confederation Congress passed the Northwest Ordinance. This law made the

Northwest Territory from the area that we now know as Ohio, Indiana, Illinois,

Michigan, Wisconsin and part of Minnesota. It also created a government for the territory and made it possible for areas in the territory to become states if they met certain requirements.

To become a state, areas in the Northwest Territory had to go through three different stages of government:

First, the Congress chose a governor, a secretary, and three judges for the territory.

The governor and judges chose rules and laws for the territory. The governor was also in charge of the volunteer army and Indian matters. He chose men to fill other government jobs as well.

Second, once 5,000 free men lived in the territory, the government could grow to have a legislature to make laws. Congress chose some of the men to serve in the legislature. Others were elected by adult men who owned at least 50 acres of land

Ohio as America/Unit 3/Chapter 7/The Northwest Ordinance

2 and lived in the territory. Only adult men who owned at least 200 acres of land in the territory could serve in the legislature.

The third and last stage was statehood. The Northwest Ordinance stated that at least three but no more than five states could be made from the Northwest

Territory. When 60,000 people lived in a territory, they could apply to become a state. The people had to form a group to write a state constitution, and the United

States Congress had to approve it. The constitution had to give the people basic rights. Slavery was also against the law in any state that was created from the

Northwest Territory.

Ohio was the first state to be created from the Northwest Territory. Ohio was an example of how a territory could become a state.

Ohio as America/Unit 3/Chapter 7/The Northwest Ordinance