Note 30 — Chapter II · The Establishment of Fort Wayne—Government Outpost of Defense, Diplomacy and Trade

Although slavery was forbidden in the Indiana Territory by the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, government officials and army officers stationed at Fort Wayne occasionally kept one or two blacks as slaves. This practice existed at other posts and in the case of Fort Snelling, Minnesota led to the series of events behind the famous Dred Scott decision in 1857.