Victory and the Northwest Ordinance

By 1781, the war moved south. British General Cornwallis trapped himself on a peninsula at Yorktown, Virginia, waiting for supplies.

Washington saw an opportunity. He marched his army south to surround Cornwallis on land, while the French navy blocked the British escape by sea.

Trapped and out of food, the British surrendered at the Battle of Yorktown. It was the last major battle of the war. As the British troops marched out to surrender, their band played a song called "The World Turned Upside Down."

Two years after Yorktown, the war officially ended with the Treaty of Paris (1783). In this document, Great Britain finally recognized the United States of America as a free and independent nation.

The treaty also set the new nation's borders: from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Mississippi River in the west, and from Canada in the north to Florida in the south. The American Revolution was a success.

With the war over, the new nation had to govern its vast western lands (the Northwest Territory). In 1787, Congress passed the Northwest Ordinance.

This law set up a fair process for new territories to become states equal to the original thirteen.

Crucially, it also included a ban on slavery in this new territory. This established an early precedent that slavery would not be allowed to spread everywhere, a decision that would shape the country's future.