Primary Source Spotlight: Three-Fifths Compromise & the Northwest Ordinance
Three-Fifths Compromise
- U.S. Constitution Article I Section 2 Clause 3
- Fragment of an original letter on the slavery of the negroes; written in the year 1776, by Thomas Day, Esq
- James Madison correspondence related to slavery
- Madison Debates, Avalon Project
- June 11, 1787
- July 11, 1787
- July 12, 1787
- August 8, 1787
- August 25, 1787
- The Constitution a pro-slavery compact; or, Extracts from the Madison papers, etc. selected by Wendell Phillips 1856
- Mysteries of Madison’s Notes of the Constitutional Convention streaming webcast (search the transcript for mentions of slavery)
- Extract from an Address to the people of the state of New-York, on the subject of the federal Constitution John Jay 1788
- The Apportionment of Members Among the States: Federalist No. 54 Tuesday, February 12, 1788
- A Compact for the Good of America? Slavery and the Three-Fifths Compromise Black Perspectives, African American Intellectual History Society
Northwest Ordinance
- Jefferson’s Plan of Government for the Western Territory | background information and analysis questions
- The Northwest and the Ordinances, 1783-1858
- Envisaging the West: Thomas Jefferson and the Roots of Lewis and Clark primary sources & secondary source information
- Land ordinance congressional legislation April 23, 1784
- An ordinance for ascertaining the mode of locating and disposing of lands in the Western Territory May 28, 1784
- An ordinance for ascertaining the mode of disposing of lands in the Western Territory March 4, 1785
- An ordinance for ascertaining the mode of disposing of lands in the Western Territory March 16, 1785
- An ordinance for ascertaining the mode of disposing of lands in the Western Territory April 12, 1785
- An ordinance for ascertaining the mode of disposing of lands in the Western Territory May 18, 1785
- Journals of the Continental Congress
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April 26, 1787 A committee issued its report on an ordinance for disposing of the Western Territory.
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May 9, 1787 The proposed ordinance was debated.
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May 10, 1787 Debate continued on the proposed ordinance.
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July 9, 1787 The proposed ordinance was referred to a new committee.
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July 11, 1787 The new committee issued a revised draft of the ordinance.
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July 12, 1787 The proposed ordinance was read a second time.
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July 13, 1787 The Northwest Ordinance was passed.
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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…”
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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
- A supplement to an ordinance entitled, “An ordinance for ascertaining the mode of disposing of lands in the Western Territory” March 19, 1788
- Creating the United States online exhibition
- Northwest Ordinance and Slavery: White Supremacy in the Foundation of the US Indian Country Today May 24, 2017
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