THIS DAY IN VIRGINIA HISTORY
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March 01, 1784
Virginia Ceded the Northwest Territory to the United States
The Virginia Deed of Cession conveyed to the United States the title Virginia held to the land known as the Northwestern Territory, the land east of the Mississippi River and between the Ohio River and the Great Lakes. The area encompassed the modern states of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin. In 1780 Congress asked states with unappropriated lands to cede them to the Union, and in 1782 Congress passed an act approving the terms on which they agreed to accept the cession from Virginia. States without western land insisted that their citizens have equal access to public land in the west before ratifying the Articles of Confederation.