The Northwest Territory, in the author’s eyes, represented an ideal of what America could be when it actually strived to meet its noblest ideals. The establishment of the Northwest Territory and its subsequent evolution into the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin (and parts of others) is worthy of unfiltered praise, according to McCullough, owing to its deliberate exclusion of the institution of slavery and the high ideals and moral character of some of its original leading lights.
McCullough has chosen to frame his narrative of American expansion into the Northwest Territory in a familiar vein not directly to counter modern notions of inclusiveness and idealism, however, but in some way directly in tribute to them. Still, it is a bit surprising to find a contemporary book of history that overtly celebrates the accomplishment for a variety of reasons academic and political. Even if that narrative has come into question in recent decades for the way it overlooks native groups, the enslaved, and other minorities, the adventurous saga of how America pushed its boundaries from the Atlantic Coast to the Pacific remains a critical part of its heritage. Notions of sturdy pioneers braving the odds and taming the wilderness to move America’s boundaries steadily westward have long been among the most cherished tales from our nation’s founding era.
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