Northwest Ordinance
What year was the Northwest Ordinance passed, which created a system for admitting new states from the Northwest Territory?
1787
What was the Fugitive Slave Act designed to do?
It required that escaped enslaved people found in free states be returned to their enslavers.
What did the Act Prohibiting the Importation of Slaves of 1807 make illegal in the United States?
It made importing enslaved people into the United States illegal.
Name one important rule the Northwest Ordinance set for new territories about government or rights
Created a plan for territorial government; set a path to statehood; guaranteed certain rights such as trial by jury.
Which group of people was most directly affected by the Fugitive Slave Act?
Enslaved people who had escaped to free states.
When did the Act of 1807 take effect (what year)?
It took effect on January 1, 1808.
The Northwest Ordinance banned a specific practice in the Northwest Territory. What was it?
Slavery (it prohibited slavery in the Northwest Territory).
How did the Fugitive Slave Act increase tensions between Northern and Southern states?
It forced Northern officials and citizens to participate in returning escaped enslaved people, angering many in the North and increasing sectional tensions.
Even though the Act banned importing enslaved people, why did slavery continue to grow in the United States?
Slavery continued to grow because of natural population increase among enslaved people and domestic slave trade within the U.S.
Explain how the Northwest Ordinance encouraged public education in new territories.
It encouraged or required support for education and public schools; included language supporting education.
Describe one way abolitionists or Northern states responded to the Fugitive Slave Act.
Underground Railroad activity increased; some Northern states passed personal liberty laws; abolitionists resisted and helped people escape
Explain one economic or social reason why some people opposed the Act Prohibiting the Importation of Slaves.
Some thought it would hurt the economy, especially in the South; others thought it did not go far enough because it did not end slavery itself.
Describe how the Northwest Ordinance influenced the way the United States expanded westward and addressed slavery in new states.
It set a model for admitting new states and included a ban on slavery in the Northwest Territory, affecting how slavery would be handled in future territories and adding to regional differences.
Explain why the Fugitive Slave Act made the issue of states' rights and federal power more controversial.
It raised debates over whether federal law could force states to enforce slavery laws and increased conflicts over federal vs. state authority.
Analyze how the Act of 1807 affected the international slave trade and the domestic slave system in the United States.
It ended U.S. participation in the international slave trade but led to expansion of the domestic trade and smuggling; it also shifted focus to internal institutions of slavery.