Download File

Name KEY
Date _____________________
Period _____
Directions: Read the Chester the Crab Cartoon to answer the questions that follow.
Questions:
1. What was one of the few successes under the Articles of Confederation?
The Northwest Ordinance
2. What 4 things did the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 promise to settlers?
Freedom of Religious Worship, Right to a jury trial for anyone accused of a crime, No cruel or
unusual punishments for a crime, no slavery in the territory.
3. Why was it important for these territories to reach a population of 60,000 people?
They needed that many people so that they could write a state constitution and apply for
statehood in congress. To become a state in the United States.
TURN OVER FOR THE NEXT ACTIVITY
Directions: Use the census chart below to answer the questions that follow. (A census chart is
used to show population).
1. How many slaves were in the Northwest Territory in the year 1800?
135
2. How many slaves were in the Northwest Territory in the year 1820?
1,109
3. Why is it strange that there was a slave population reported in the Northwest Territory between
the years of 1800 and 1820?
Because, according to the Northwest Ordinance, slavery was not supposed to be allowed
in the Northwest Territory.
4. The Northwest Ordinance states that "whenever any of the said States shall have 60,000 free
inhabitants therein, such State shall be admitted, by its delegates, into the Congress of the United
States, on an equal footing with the original States..." Illinois gained admission to the Union in
1818. Did Illinois meet the population requirement established in the Northwest Ordinance?
No
5. What does your answer to question #2 tell us about the enforcement of these laws?
They were not strictly enforced
6. Compare the total population of the Northwest Territory in 1800 with the total population of the
area in 1820. What does the comparison tell us about western migration during the first twenty
years of the nineteenth century?
It tells us that a lot of people moved west.