Northwest Territory, Historical territory in eastern United States.
Northwest Territory was a territory of the United States lying east of the Mississippi and north of the Ohio River, stretching from the Great Lakes down to the border between modern Indiana and Kentucky. It covered present-day Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and part of Minnesota.
The United States created it in 1787 through the Northwest Ordinance, which set rules for forming new states and settling western lands. Ohio became the first state carved from it in 1803, followed by Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin over the following decades.
The name comes from the region lying northwest of the Ohio River, which then marked the western edge of the original states. Settlers brought European town names and built communities modeled on New England villages with central greens and meeting houses.
Museums in Marietta and other founding towns display maps, documents, and objects from the territorial period. Visitors can drive along the Ohio River through old settlements and see reconstructed log cabins and forts.
The Northwest Ordinance banned slavery in all future states formed from this region, creating the first legally defined free zone in North America. Rivers served as natural borders, so the Ohio became the dividing line between free and slaveholding regions.
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