The Ohio State University is proud to collaborate with the America 250-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:
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.
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 America 250, 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 America 250, the America 250-Ohio Commission, and Ohio State University, notably including the OSU 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
Register for January 30
New Perspectives on the Northwest Ordinance
Co-organizers:
- Christopher McKnight Nichols – Wayne Woodrow Hayes Chair in National Security Studies and Professor of History, The Ohio State University
- María Hammack, Assistant Professor of African American History, The Ohio State University
Tentative Conference Schedule:
- 8:30AM – Registration, Coffee
- 9:00AM – Introductory Remarks
- 9:30AM – Panel 1: Blueprint for a Nation
- 11:00AM – Coffee Break
- 11:15AM – Panel 2: Labor, Gender, and Mobilities
- 12:45PM – Lunch
- 1:30PM – Panel 3: Encounters
- 3:00PM – Coffee Break
- 3:30PM – Panel 4: The Economy, Debt, Waterways, and State Formation
- 5:00PM – Reception
- 5:30PM – Dinner and Culminating Panel 5: Legacies of the Northwest Ordinance
Confirmed Panelists & Contributors
- John Bickers, Jesse Hauk Shera Assistant Professor, Case Western Reserve University
- Brandon Downing, Associate Professor of History, Marietta College
- Paul Finkelman, Distinguished Professor of Law, Emeritus, Albany Law School
- Francois Furstenberg, Professor of History, Johns Hopkins University
- Alexis Guilbault, Term Professor, DePaul University
- Annette Gordon-Reed, Carl M. Loeb University Professor, Professor of History & Law, Harvard University
- María Hammack, Assistant Professor of African American History, The Ohio State University
- Alisha Hines, Director of Research for the Center for Scholars & Storytellers, UCLA
- Jon Lauck, Adjunct Professor of Political Science and History, University of South Dakota; President of Midwestern History Association
- Margaret Newell, College of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor, The Ohio State University
- Christopher McKnight Nichols, Wayne Woodrow Hayes Chair in National Security Studies, Mershon Center for International Security Studies, and Professor of History, History Department, The Ohio State University
- Peter Onuf, Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation Professor, Emeritus, University of Virginia
- Jonathan Quint, Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Michigan
- Jessica Roney, Associate Professor, Temple University
- Brian Schoen, Associate Professor & Associate Director, Salmon P. Chase Center for Civics, Culture, and Society, The Ohio State University
- Samantha Seeley, Associate Professor of History, University of Richmond
- Susan Stearns, Assistant Professor, The University of Mississippi
- Jazma Sutton, Assistant Professor of History, Miami University (Ohio)
- Nikki Taylor, Professor of History, Howard University
- Guillaume Teasdale, Associate Professor of History, Director of Graduate Studies, Director Detroit River Border Region Digital History Project at the University of Windsor
- Ann Twitty, Associate Professor of History, Stanford University
- Gleaves Whitney, Executive Director, Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation
Register for January 31 Conference
New Perspectives on the Northwest Ordinance: For Teachers, Scholars and Public Historians
This conference is free and open to all teachers, scholars, and public historians. Pre-registration is requested. On-site registration will also be available.
Co-organizers:
- Paul LaRue, America 250-Ohio K-12 Education Committee Co-Chair
- Dr. Brian Schoen, Associate Director, Salmon P. Chase Center for Civics, Culture, and Society, Ohio State University
Schedule:
- 8:30 AM - Registration, Coffee
- 9:00 AM - Introductory Remarks
- 9:30 - 10:30 AM
Scholar Roundtable: The Northwest Ordinance in Its Own Time
A moderated discussion with panelists reflecting on how we should understand the Northwest Ordinance in the context of the early American Republic. - 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM
Concurrent Sessions: Teaching the Northwest Ordinance- Panel 7 – “Decoding the Northwest Ordinance: The Science of Reading for Elementary Students”
Presented by the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce
This session will use the science of reading framework to enhance teachers’ and pre-service teachers’ ability to incorporate the Northwest Ordinance into Ohio History and Civics instruction. Resources and strategies will be tailored specifically for K–5 and 8th grade classrooms. - Panel 8 – Strategies and Resources for Middle and High School Students
Master teachers share their approaches to teaching the Northwest Ordinance at the secondary level. Attendees will have time to break out and discuss how to adapt or create lesson plans for their own classrooms.
- Panel 7 – “Decoding the Northwest Ordinance: The Science of Reading for Elementary Students”
- 12:30 - 2:00 PM - Lunch
- 2:30 - 4:00 PM
Panel 9: Public History and the Northwest Ordinance
Leaders in Midwest public history will discuss collaborations with local historical societies and museums to commemorate the Northwest Ordinance and highlight its continued importance. - 4:00 - 4:30 PM - Break
- 4:30 - 5:30 PM
Scholar Roundtable #2: The Northwest Ordinance in Our Own Day
Scholars will engage teachers and audience participants in a discussion of the Ordinance’s long-term impact, including how it helped shape the United States past and present. - 5:30 - 7:00 PM - Dinner
- 7:30 PM - Keynote Address: Annette Gordon-Reed (separate registration required)
Register for January 31 Keynote
New Perspectives on the Northwest Ordinance
Keynote Address: Annette Gordon-Reed and the Meaning of the Northwest Ordinance and the United States at 250
Annette Gordon-Reed is an American law professor and Pulitzer Prize-winning historian. She is currently the Carl M. Loeb University Professor at Harvard University, where she is also a professor of history in the university’s Faculty of Arts & Sciences.
Gordon-Reed is noted for transforming scholarship on Thomas Jefferson, particularly regarding his relationship with Sally Hemings and her children. She was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for History and the National Book Award for Nonfiction in 2008 for her groundbreaking work on the Hemings family of Monticello. In 2010, she received the National Humanities Medal and a MacArthur Fellowship, also known as the MacArthur “Genius Award.”
Since 2018, she has served as a trustee of the National Humanities Center in Research Triangle Park, NC. She was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 2019. Gordon-Reed’s contributions to historical scholarship and her dedication to uncovering and presenting the complexities of American history have made her a prominent and influential figure in both academic and public spheres.
Her books include the Pulitzer-Prizing winning On Juneteenth, Most Blessed of the Patriarchs: Thomas Jefferson and the Empire of the Imagination, Andrew Johnson: The American Presidents Series: The 17th President, 1865-1869, the Pulitzer-Prize winning The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family, and National Book Award winner Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An American Controversy, among others.
This event is free and open to the public. It begins at 7:30pm at The Fawcett Center. Free parking is available on-site at The Fawcett Center.