Chapter 10: Agreement Is Also Reached on Organizing the New Territories to the West

The delegates in Philadelphia also agree that the Territories acquired from Britain after the Revolutionary War will eventually turn into ten new states: six in the North from Ohio to Minnesota; four in the South from Kentucky to Mississippi.

The process by which these Territories would be admitted to the Union comes next. The answer lies in a series of Ordinances stating that application will follow the appointment of a Governor and other officials, creation of a legislature, and a State Constitution to be submitted when the population reaches 60,000 settlers.

But the North also requires the establishment of a geographical demarcation line signaling which Territories will be labelled Free States vs. Slave States. According to the 1787 Northwest Ordinance, this line begins at the border of Pennsylvania and extends southwest along the Ohio River, ending at the Mississippi River, in what becomes southern Illinois.