The Ohio State University Mershon Center for International Security Studies

New Perspectives on the Northwest Ordinance

New Perspectives on the Northwest Ordinance

The Ohio State University is proud to collaborate with the America250-Ohio Commission to host a two-day conference, January 30-31, 2026, focused on New Perspectives on the Northwest Ordinance. Ohio was the first state to emerge from the Northwest Ordinance, adopted in 1787 by the Continental Congress, at the same time the U.S. Constitution was being deliberated. The Northwest Ordinance is a founding document that is often overlooked despite its significant impact in shaping the future United States, especially what would later be called the American Midwest. The nation's 250 anniversary in 2026 gives Americans a great opportunity to rediscover the lessons and ideals that came from the Northwest Ordinance and learn new perspectives from scholars, educators and practitioners from the Midwest and beyond.

On the Ordinance, the Conference, and Project:

Northwest Ordinance 1787

The Northwest Ordinance, adopted on July 13, 1787, by the Confederation Congress, was a crucial political instrument arguably as foundational to the development of the United States as the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. In stipulating the terms of the eventual statehood for the territories northwest of the Ohio River and establishing the conditions for the continued political conflicts over slavery that would later culminate in the Civil War, the Ordinance was nothing less than a blueprint for the nation. It embodied many of the country’s early ideological, legal, and material strengths, as well as its central contradictions, including the free/unfree divide and Indigenous sovereignty ramifications; questions of progress, expansion, and their requisite labor demands; and the troubled relations with indigenous peoples and those from a wide range of nations and backgrounds. 

Despite the Ordinance’s major impacts on development of the Early Republic and enduring legacies, it has been the subject of modest historical attention, particularly in recent years. This conference provides a much-needed reassessment in the context of the nation’s semi quincentennial. This conference, a partnership of many entities at The Ohio State, led by the Ohio State Initiative for America250 and the Mershon Center for International Security Studies, later joined by the Salmon P. Chase Center for Civics, Culture, and Society, along with the Ohio Commission for the 250th America250-Ohio, the Ohio History Connection, and Ohio Humanities, aims to better understand how the Ordinance influenced all facets of American life and experience by renewing scholarly discourse on complicated questions around the Ordinance as a blueprint for the nation. Bringing together top scholars and thinkers, we hope to shine a bright light on the history of the Ordinance. The conference’s panels and presentations will bring the best insights of history to bear on the history and continuing legacy and impact of the Northwest Ordinance. Among the results we hope for will be a path-breaking book intended for wider audiences and a booklet focused on the Ordinance for teachers, students, and the broader public.

Conference panels and presentations will focus on encounters, people and place, labor, mobility, law, education, settlement, and the economy. Specific topics relate to citizenship, justice, indentured servitude, free/unfree labor, (im)migration, race, ethnicity, religion, gender and sexuality, Constitutional law, histories of capitalism, political violence, debt and commerce, civic education, and the conceptualization of the Ordinance as a foreign relations instrument. In turn, on the second day of the conference we will focus on bringing the best of these insights into the classroom with a range of teaching workshops, curriculum and pedagogy sessions, targeted at classes from fourth grade through college.

Barn with America 250 logo

This conference is free and open to the public. Pre-registration is requested. On-site registration will also be available.

The conference includes three separate events: January 30 Conference, January 31 Conference and January 31 Keynote Speaker Annette Gordon-Reed. Separate registration is required for each of the three conference events.

This Northwest Ordinance Conference is made possible in part through the generous support of Walmart and America250, who together awarded a grant of $25,000 to help bring this event to life. We are grateful for their partnership in advancing education, history, and community engagement. These events are a partnership of America250, the America250-Ohio Commission, and Ohio State University, notably including the Ohio State College of Arts and Sciences, History Department, Mershon Center for International Security Studies, the Woody Hayes Chair in National Security Studies, and the Salmon P. Chase Center for Civics, Culture, and Society.

Image Credit
Citation: Ordinance for the Government of the Territory of the United States North-West of the River Ohio; 7/13/1787; Miscellaneous Papers of the Continental Congress, 1774 - 1789; Records of the Continental and Confederation Congresses and the Constitutional Convention, Record Group 360; National Archives Building, Washington, DC.
 

Northwest Ordinance Conference Registration & Details