Broadside Announcing An Act for the Government of the Territory of the United States South of the River Ohio

After North Carolina ceded its claims to the region west of the Smoky Mountains Congress passed this act establishing a government for the future state of Tennessee, referred to here as “the Territory… South of the River Ohio.” This act provided for a government in Tennessee along the same lines as that established in the Northwest Territories in in 1787 with one major exception. While slavery was prohibited in the Northwest Territories, an act passed by Congress on April 2, 1790 permitted it “South of the River Ohio”.