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Federal Hall served as the nation's seat of government in 1787, when the Northwest Ordinance was passed into law. On July 13, 1937, the U.S. Post Office issued a 3-cent commemorative stamp to mark the 150th anniversary of the Northwest Territory as defined by the Ordinance of 1787.
The 1804 law required black and mulatto residents to have a certificate from the Clerk of the Court that they were free. Employers who violated were fined $10 to $50 split between informer and state. Under the 1807 law, black and mulatto residents required a $500 bond for good behavior and against becoming a township charge.
The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 established laws prohibiting slavery in the Northwest Territory, the region north of the Ohio River comprising the present-day states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota. Article 6 of the ordinance declares, "There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said territory ...
Congress made a further attempt to address the concerns of slave owners in 1787 by passing the Northwest Ordinance of 1787. [10] The law appeared to outlaw slavery, which would have reduced the votes of slave states in Congress, but southern representatives were concerned with economic competition from potential slaveholders in the new ...
The Northwest Ordinance was the first act of its kind in that it prohibited slavery throughout a U.S. territory. This act was less controversial than it may have seemed at the time, practically a rework of an earlier 1784 act that proposed gradual reduction of slavery throughout the territories.
At the time of the drafting of the Constitution in 1787, and its ratification in 1789, slavery was banned by the states in New England and Pennsylvania and by the Congress of the Confederation in the Northwest Territory, by the Northwest Ordinance. Though slaves were present in other states, most were forced to work in agriculture in the South.
The Ordinance prohibited slavery and provided for freedom of worship, the right of habeas corpus and trial by jury, and the right to make bail except for capital offenses. [1] Ohio courts have noted that the Northwest Ordinance "was ever considered as the fundamental law of the territory." [2
During the American Revolution (1775–1783) some of the 13 British colonies seeking independence to become states began to abolish slavery. The U.S. Constitution ratified in 1789, left the matter in the hands of each state, and with federal jurisdiction in the territories asserted by Congress, particularly with the Northwest Ordinance of 1787.