What was the main aim of the northwest ordinance of 1787? a. to pay off the national debt b. to empower congress to auction surplus land c. to stipulate how new states would be created d. to gradually end the slave trade in the old northwest

The Northwest Ordinance, adopted July 13, 1787, by the Second Continental Congress, chartered a government for theNorthwest Territory, provided a method for admitting new states to the Union from the territory, and listed a bill of rights guaranteed in the territory.