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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 Ordinance of 1787), enacted July 13, 1787, was an organic act of the Congress of the Confederation of the United States.
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 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.
Ordinance of 1787: The Northwest Territorial Government ("Northwest Ordinance") - Prohibited slavery in the Northwest Territory north of the Ohio River. Fugitive Slave Law of 1793 - Guaranteed rights of slaveholders to retrieve escaped slaves. An Act to prohibit the importation of slaves 1807 - legally prohibited the international slave trade.
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.
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 ...
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.
Slavery continued following the American Revolutionary War, when the territory was ceded to the United States. The first legislation against slavery was the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, which forbade slavery in the Northwest Territory. However, territorial laws and practices allowed human bondage to continue in various forms.