Ohio

The first state carved out of the Northwest Territory, and the test case for how the country would expand. The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 set the template: territories would become states equal to the original thirteen rather than remaining colonies, public land would be surveyed into a grid of townships with one section reserved for schools, and slavery was prohibited north of the Ohio river. That last clause made the river a boundary between two American futures. Native resistance delayed settlement: a confederacy under Little Turtle destroyed two American armies, including St Clair's in 1791, the worst defeat US forces ever suffered against Native Americans, before Fallen Timbers in 1794 broke it. Statehood came in 1803. The Ohio river and then canals and railways made the state a corridor between east and west, and it industrialised early - rubber at Akron, steel at Youngstown, machine tools at Cincinnati and Cleveland. It was a terminus of the underground railroad and supplied more Union soldiers per head than almost any state. Seven presidents came from Ohio, second only to Virginia. Its position as a political bellwether lasted from 1896 until recently. Deindustrialisation since the 1970s has defined its politics. Columbus is the capital and now the largest city, ahead of Cleveland and Cincinnati. The state is named for the river, from a Seneca word meaning good river. It borders Lake Erie in the north and the Ohio in the south. Serpent Mound is among the largest effigy earthworks in the world. Both Wright brothers grew up in Dayton.

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