Describes the Northwest Ordinance as a vision for self-government and discusses the conflict between William Henry Harrison and Jonathan Jennings in the newly formed Indiana Territory. Elaborates on how statehood in Indiana was achieved and what status slavery assumed in Indiana. (BSR)

The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 is a fundamental document in the development of the United States. It is outranked in importance only by the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. The immediate purpose of the Northwest Ordinance was to provide government for the largely unsettled lands north and west of the Ohio River. In promising…

The Northwest Ordinance of 1787, which provided for government of the largely unsettled frontier area north of the Ohio River and for an orderly, three-stage transition of the territories from control by national government to full and equal statehood, joins the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution to form a trinity of…