Jefferson's Map of the Northwest Territory
Thomas Jefferson's map of the Northwest Territory details his ideas about dividing up the territory won from Britain in the American Revolution into new states. His proposed states are different from many of the established states in that they all are relatively angular. The lines that divide the states vertically are perfectly straight, as are the lines that divide them horizontally. Jefferson deviates from this pattern only in places where the natural geography of the area makes a tidy partition impossible. For example, in his proposed state number 3, Lake Huron and Lake Michigan eat into what would otherwise be a rectangular piece of real estate, and he uses the Ohio River as a dividing line between states 7 and 10. But for the most part, Jefferson ignores the natural boundaries indicated by rivers and mountains, which in his map go through states rather than define them. His map also depicts states that are similar in size. The older states varied wildly, depending on a combination of their original land grants and historical circumstance; the new ones, in Jefferson's vision, are of relatively equal size and so theoretically will carry similar political weight in the House of Representatives. What does this map indicate about Jefferson's vision of the Northwest Territory?