<P> The language of the ordinance prohibits slavery , but also contained a clear fugitive slave clause as well . Efforts in the 1820s by pro-slavery forces to legalize slavery in two of the states created from the Northwest Territory failed , but an `` indentured servant '' law allowed some slaveholders to bring slaves under that status ; they could not be bought or sold . Southern states voted for the law because they did not want to compete with the territory over tobacco as a commodity crop ; it was so labor - intensive that it was grown profitably only with slave labor . Additionally , slave - states ' political power would merely be equalized , as there were three more slave - states than there were free - states in 1790 . </P>
<P> The language of the ordinance prohibits slavery , but also contained a clear fugitive slave clause as well . Efforts in the 1820s by pro-slavery forces to legalize slavery in two of the states created from the Northwest Territory failed , but an `` indentured servant '' law allowed some slaveholders to bring slaves under that status ; they could not be bought or sold . Southern states voted for the law because they did not want to compete with the territory over tobacco as a commodity crop ; it was so labor - intensive that it was grown profitably only with slave labor . Additionally , slave - states ' political power would merely be equalized , as there were three more slave - states than there were free - states in 1790 . </P>
what did the northwest ordinance of 1787 prohibit in the northwest territories
what did the northwest ordinance of 1787 prohibit in the northwest territories
slavery
slavery