The Northwest Territory and the Meaning of Freedom: Slavery, Race, and the Northwest Ordinance

What did freedom mean in the early American West? When Congress created the Northwest Territory in 1787, it established one of the nation’s earliest major restrictions on slavery while laying the groundwork for the future states of the Old Northwest. Yet the territory’s vision of freedom did not necessarily extend equally to all.

Renowned historian Paul Finkelman examines the Northwest Ordinance and the complicated history of slavery, race, citizenship, and equality in the territory that would become OHio and its neighboring states.

For more information, please contact the Ross County Historical Society.