Episode 1 of 2
Passage of the Southwest Ordinance
- When
- May 26, 1790
- Where
- Congress
- Part of
- Southwest Territory Act
Congress passed the act organizing the cession as the Territory South of the River Ohio on May 26, 1790, establishing the legal framework for governance.
The act, known as the Southwest Ordinance, was passed on May 26, 1790. It organized the cession from North Carolina into an incorporated territory. The governance structure mirrored the 1787 Northwest Ordinance, with supreme power resting in the governor. This act defined the territory's boundaries and administrative procedures.
Sources
- Southwest Territory Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-18
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.