Northwest Ordinance

American  

noun

1. the act of Congress in 1787 providing for the government of the Northwest Territory and setting forth the steps by which its subdivisions might become states.

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Northwest Ordinance Cultural  

1. A law passed in 1787 to regulate the settlement of the Northwest Territory, which eventually was divided into several states of the Middle West. The United States was governed under the Articles of Confederation at the time. The Northwest Ordinance organized the territory into townships of thirty-six square miles each and provided for self-government and religious toleration in the territory. Slavery was prohibited.

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Example Sentences

In 1787, the Congress of the Confederation adopted the Northwest Ordinance, which established a government in the Northwest Territory, an area corresponding to the present-day Midwest and Upper Midwest.

From Washington Times

The Northwest Ordinance was the first of its kind since the act passed promising freedom of religion, free education and the prohibition of slavery.

From Washington Times

When the Northwest Ordinance was adopted in 1787, it meant French and British families could keep their slaves and their children could inherit those slaves, but new Americans could not have slaves.

From The Guardian

While the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 incorporated today’s midwestern states as a new territory and established the principle of dividing the land into regular, square areas, Chicago’s modern grid system remained a fantasy for decades.

From The Guardian

From the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, to the Naturalization Act of 1790, to the Homestead Act of 1862, to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, to the Asiatic Barred Zone Act of 1917, to the National Origins Act of 1924, to Executive Order 9066 of 1942, to Executive Order 13769 of 2017, bigotry disguised as nationalism is nothing new.

From The Guardian