African Americans in Indiana

The earliest documentation of black Americans residing in what is now known as Indiana originates from a report in 1746 concerning French settlements, which indicates that forty white men and five African American slaves were living in Vincennes along the Wabash River. French inhabitants of the region persisted in maintaining slaves throughout both the French and English periods of control. Following the American Revolution, the U.S. Congress enacted the Ordinance of 1787 to regulate the newly acquired western territory. This Ordinance explicitly forbade slavery and involuntary servitude within the Northwest Territory. Numerous early white settlers in Indiana transported their black slaves from southern slave states.^[2]