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History of the Ordinance of 1787
Our edition · 1856 · 52 pages
History of the Ordinance of 1787
by Edward Coles
An 1856 address by Edward Coles, second governor of Illinois, defending the antislavery clause of the Northwest Ordinance — woven through with his own recollections of the era. Part history, part autobiography.
The changed life
Coles judged slaveholding a wrong he could not keep. After inheriting people from his father's Virginia estate, he carried them west in 1819, freed them on the Ohio River, and bought 160 acres of land for each freed head of family.
A note on the text. History of the Ordinance of 1787is in the public domain. What you're buying is our edition — the careful typesetting and design. The original text is also available free here.