[ Founding Fathers ] [ Quotes ] [ Freemasonry ] [ Slavery ] [ Steven Waldman ] [ Evolution ]

Northwest Ordinance

Interestingly, simultaneous with the convention and the 1808 amendment, the Northwest Ordinance was actually passed by Congress in New York City. The Northwest Ordinance prevented slavery's expansion into areas above the Ohio River. Historian Donald Fehrenbacher believes that the Northwest Ordinance was a piece of a big compromise legislation secretly negotiated by the Constitutional Convention and Congress, but nothing remains in writing to prove it. It is possible that the 1808 Amendment was allowed ONLY if Congress would pass the Northwest Ordinance.

In other words, the North would allow a much weaker slave amendment in the Constitution if Congress would pass the Northwest Ordinance. This gives the North what they want - protective slave legislation in the northwest territory, and it gives the South what they want - complete hands off on the existing slave status in the south. This would make sense, but it's entirely hypothetical since there's no hard evidence.

Here's a summary of the Northwest Ordinance from wikipedia:

The Northwest Ordinance (formally An Ordinance for the Government of the Territory of the United States, North-West of the River Ohio, and also known as the Freedom Ordinance) was an act of the Congress of the Confederation of the United States. The Ordinance unanimously passed on July 13, 1787. The primary effect of the ordinance was the creation of the Northwest Territory as the first organized territory of the United States out of the region south of the Great Lakes, north and west of the Ohio River, and east of the Mississippi River. On August 7, 1789, the U.S. Congress affirmed the Ordinance with slight modifications under the Constitution.

Arguably the single most important piece of legislation passed by members of the earlier Continental Congresses other than the Declaration of Independence, it established the precedent by which the United States would expand westward across North America by the admission of new states, rather than by the expansion of existing states.

The banning of slavery in the territory had the effect of establishing the Ohio River as the boundary between free and slave territory in the region between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River. This division helped set the stage for the balancing act between free and slave states that was the basis of a critical political question in American politics in the 19th century until the Civil War.

--