Digital Collections

The digital collections of the Library of Congress contain a wide variety of primary source materials associated with the Northwest Ordinance, including manuscripts, government documents, and broadsides. Provided below is a link to the home page for each relevant digital collection along with selected highlights.

Congressional Publications

A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates 1774 to 1875
This collection contains congressional publications from 1774 to 1875, including debates, bills, laws, and journals.

Journals of the Continental Congress

The text of the Northwest Ordinance appears in the Journals of the Continental Congress on July 13, 1787. Additional references to passage of the Northwest Ordinance can be found in the Journals on the following dates in 1787:

April 26, 1787
A committee issued its report on an ordinance for disposing of the Western Territory.
May 9, 1787
The proposed ordinance was debated.
May 10, 1787
Debate continued on the proposed ordinance.
July 9, 1787
The proposed ordinance was referred to a new committee.
July 11, 1787
The new committee issued a revised draft of the ordinance.
July 12, 1787
The proposed ordinance was read a second time.
July 13, 1787
The Northwest Ordinance was passed.

Letters of Delegates to Congress

The Letters of Delegates to Congress reprints a number of letters that reference the Northwest Ordinance, including the following selected highlights:

Richard Henry Lee to Francis Lightfoot Lee, July 14, 1787
"After some difficulty we passed an Ordinance for establishing a temporary Government beyond the Ohio as preparatory to the sale of that Country."
Nathan Dane to Rufus King, July 16. 1787
"When I drew the ordinance which passed (in a few words excepted) as I originally formed it, I had no idea the States would agree to the sixth Art. prohibiting Slavery..."

African American Perspectives: Materials Selected from the Rare Book Collection

African American Perspectives: Materials Selected from the Rare Book Collection
"African American Perspectives" gives a panoramic and eclectic review of African American history and culture and is primarily comprised of two collections in the Rare Book and Special Collections Division: the African American Pamphlet Collection and the Daniel A.P. Murray Collection with a date range of 1822 through 1909.

A selection of highlights includes:

Dr. Cutler and the Ordinance of 1787.
An account of the drafting of the Ordinance of 1787, particularly its prohibition of slavery in the territories, and of the men in the Continental Congress instrumental in drafting it, especially Manasseh Cutler of Massachusetts.
The Centennial Jubilee of Freedom at Columbus, Ohio, Saturday, September 22, 1888 : orations, poems, and addresses.
The jubilee was a celebration by African Americans of the Ordinance of 1787 and the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863. This account is mostly taken up with an oration by Bishop B.W. Arnett of the AME Church on the achievement of freedom in the U.S. by African Americans and on the need of African Americans to exercise their civil rights freely everywhere in the U.S.

Documents from the Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention

Documents from the Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention, 1774 to 1789
This collection contains 277 documents relating to the work of Congress and the drafting and ratification of the Constitution. It includes the essay To Form a More Perfect Union, which examines Congressional debate after the Revolutionary War over the division and government of the Western Territories.

A selection of highlights includes:

An ordinance for the government of the territory of the United States, North-west of the river Ohio.
The Northwest Ordinance as passed July 13, 1787. Journals of the Continental Congress, v. 32, p. 334-343.
An ordinance for the government of the territory of the United States, North-west of the river Ohio.
LC copy has annotations in the margin which indicate changes made in the May 10, 1787 reading of the ordinance and ascribed to Nathan Dane (cf. Journals of the Continental Congress, 582). Accompanied by a ms. copy of the 6th article of the ordinance (1 sheet ; 19 x 14 cm.) in Dane's hand. Cf. Journals of the Continental Congress, 582).

Pioneering the Upper Midwest: Books from Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin

Pioneering the Upper Midwest: Books from Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, ca. 1820-1910
This collection portrays the states of Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin from the seventeenth to the early twentieth century through first-person accounts, biographies, promotional literature, local histories, ethnographic and antiquarian texts, colonial archival documents, and other works drawn from the Library of Congress's General Collections and Rare Books and Special Collections Division. This collection contains an essay on the Northwest and the Ordinances, 1783-1858.

Thomas Jefferson Papers

Thomas Jefferson Papers, 1606 to 1827
The complete Thomas Jefferson Papers from the Manuscript Division at the Library of Congress consists of approximately 27,000 documents.

Selected Highlight:

United States Congress, March 1, 1784, Printed Resolution on Western Territory Government; with Notations by Thomas Jefferson

Northwest Ordinance: Primary Documents in American History

History, Humanities & Social Sciences: Ask a Librarian

Digital Collections

Congressional Publications

Journals of the Continental Congress

Letters of Delegates to Congress

African American Perspectives: Materials Selected from the Rare Book Collection

A selection of highlights includes:

Documents from the Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention

A selection of highlights includes:

Pioneering the Upper Midwest: Books from Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin

Thomas Jefferson Papers

Selected Highlight: