The Northwest Ordinance

In the summer of 1787, while America’s greatest political minds were huddled in Philadelphia crafting the Constitution, another crucial act of nation-building was quietly unfolding in New York. The Confederation Congress, often remembered more for its failures than its triumphs, passed the Northwest Ordinance—one of the most influential pieces of legislation in American history. This wasn’t just a law about land. It was a blueprint for how liberty could stretch westward. It promised new states, public education, religious freedom, and most striking of all, it outlawed slavery in the territory. It defined how the nation would grow, who would have rights, and where the line between slavery and freedom would be drawn. Today on *Dave Does History*, we’re going to pull back the curtain on this powerful but often forgotten moment in our past. Because before there was a Bill of Rights, there was the Northwest Ordinance—and it changed everything.