Northwest Territory

American  

noun

1. the region north of the Ohio River, organized by Congress in 1787, comprising present-day Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and the eastern part of Minnesota.

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Northwest Territory British  

noun

1. See Old Northwest

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Example Sentences

Masur’s story begins in the Northwest Territory, where the Continental Congress abolished slavery in 1787.

From Washington Post • Apr. 22, 2021

Established in 1787, the Northwest Territory forbade slavery per the federal Northwest Ordinance.

From Washington Times • Feb. 14, 2021

In it, they included a clause outlawing slavery, making the Northwest Territory the largest region in the New World up to that time to have done so.

From New York Times • Sep. 20, 2019

Slavery was not permitted in the Northwest Territory and, therefore, slavery did not spread north of the Ohio River.

From Textbooks • Jan. 1, 2012

According to the census of 1880, the original Northwest Territory contained a population of 12,989,571, or more than one-quarter of the population of the United States.

From Fifty Years In The Northwest With An Introduction And Appendix Containing Reminiscences, Incidents And Notes by Folsom, William Henry Carman