Northwest Ordinance Map – Where Slavery Was Banned in 1787

All 9 states on the diagram

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The Northwest Territory 5

Ohio (rule: Slavery banned) Slavery banned by the 1787 ordinance. A state in 1803, the first of the five.
Michigan (rule: Slavery banned) Slavery banned by the 1787 ordinance. A state in 1837.
Illinois (rule: Slavery banned) Slavery banned by the 1787 ordinance. A state in 1818.
Indiana (rule: Slavery banned) Slavery banned by the 1787 ordinance. A state in 1816.
Wisconsin (rule: Slavery banned) Slavery banned by the 1787 ordinance. A state in 1848, the last of the five.

South of the Ohio River 4

Virginia (rule: Slavery allowed) Slavery was legal here in 1787. Kentucky and West Virginia were then its land.
Kentucky (rule: Slavery allowed) Part of Virginia in 1787, outside the territory. A state in 1792.
Tennessee (rule: Slavery allowed) North Carolina's land in 1787. The 1790 law for it allowed slavery. A state in 1796.
West Virginia (rule: Slavery allowed) Part of Virginia in 1787, outside the territory. A state in 1863.

How this list was compiled: The Northwest Ordinance of July 13, 1787 and the text of its Article 6: U.S. National Archives, Milestone Documents, https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/northwest-ordinance, and the Library of Congress guide, https://guides.loc.gov/northwest-ordinance, both read 2026-10-02. The five states made from the territory: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northwest_Territory, read 2026-10-02, and https://www.ushistory.org/us/14c.asp, read 2026-10-02. Years of statehood: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_date_of_admission_to_the_Union, checked against the United States Senate's state pages (https://www.senate.gov/states/OH/intro.htm and the pages of the other eight states), read 2026-10-02. South of the Ohio River: https://www.ushistory.org/us/13d.asp and https://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/entries/southwest-territory/, read 2026-10-03, with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northwest_Ordinance and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southwest_Territory, read 2026-10-02. Hints and detail lines written for this site; positions were read off the drawing. Licence: own work

The drawing: Drawn for this site from U.S. Census Bureau 2023 cartographic boundary file cb_2023_us_state_5m (scale 1:5,000,000), https://www2.census.gov/geo/tiger/GENZ2023/shp/cb_2023_us_state_5m.zip, downloaded 2026-09-19. Surrounding land from Natural Earth 5.1.2, ne_10m_admin_0_countries_lakes (scale 1:10,000,000), https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvkelso/natural-earth-vector/v5.1.2/geojson/ne_10m_admin_0_countries_lakes.geojson, downloaded 2026-09-19. Albers equal-area conic projection, central meridian 81.1°W, standard parallels 28.5°N and 44.2°N. Outlines simplified; small islands are left out. Licence: public domain (work of the United States government, 17 U.S.C. 105): https://www2.census.gov/geo/pdfs/maps-data/data/tiger/tgrshp2023/TGRSHP2023_TechDoc_Ch1.pdf; public domain (Natural Earth terms of use: https://www.naturalearthdata.com/about/terms-of-use/)

How it works

This Northwest Ordinance map is drawn on today's borders. Tap the five states made from the Northwest Territory, where the law of July 13, 1787 banned slavery, and four south of the Ohio River, which it did not cover.

Read the full guide

Label the map to show how the Northwest Ordinance regulated slavery

Article 6 of the ordinance says there shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the territory. That land became Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin. To label a blank map, mark those five as banned and Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia as allowed.

The Ohio River is the line

The law's full title names the territory northwest of the River Ohio. South of the river, Kentucky and West Virginia were part of Virginia in 1787 and Tennessee was North Carolina's land, and slavery stayed legal there. The territory ran west to the Mississippi River, so it also took in the northeastern part of today's Minnesota, which is plain land on this map.

Ohio was the first state made from the territory, in 1803, and Wisconsin the last, in 1848.
Kentucky's wavy top edge is the Ohio River. Ohio, Indiana and Illinois lie along it on the other bank.

Questions and answers

Which states were made from the Northwest Territory?

Five: Ohio in 1803, Indiana in 1816, Illinois in 1818, Michigan in 1837 and Wisconsin in 1848. The territory also covered the northeastern part of what is now Minnesota.

What did the Northwest Ordinance say about slavery?

Article 6 begins: "There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said territory." The Confederation Congress adopted the ordinance on July 13, 1787.

Did the Northwest Ordinance ban slavery in Kentucky?

No. Kentucky lies south of the Ohio River and was part of Virginia in 1787, outside the territory the law covered. It became a state in 1792.

Does this map show the borders of 1787?

No. It shows today's state lines, the only ones the public-domain boundary files hold. In 1787 none of the five states existed yet, and Virginia still included Kentucky and what is now West Virginia.