> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://america-250.mintlify.site/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # The Northwest Ordinance > The 1787 ordinance governing the Northwest Territory and the admission of new states. Enacted by the Confederation Congress on July 13, 1787, the same summer the Constitution was drafted, the Northwest Ordinance established how territories would be governed and admitted as new states on an equal footing with the original thirteen. ## What It Did The Ordinance organized the territory northwest of the Ohio River and set precedents that shaped American expansion: * **Pathway to statehood.** New states would be admitted "on an equal footing with the original States in all respects whatever," rather than held as colonies. * **A bill of rights.** It guaranteed freedom of religion, the right to trial by jury, habeas corpus, and proportionate representation, anticipating protections later added to the Constitution. * **Support for education.** "Religion, morality, and knowledge, being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged." * **Prohibition of slavery.** Article 6 declared: "There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said territory," making it the first federal restriction on the expansion of slavery. ## Significance The Northwest Ordinance is often ranked alongside the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution as a founding document. Its statehood model governed the growth of the nation across the continent, and its slavery prohibition foreshadowed the sectional conflicts that led to the Civil War. ## Source See the full text at the [U.S. National Archives](https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/northwest-ordinance) and the [Avalon Project](https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/nworder.asp).