The initial record of African Americans residing in present-day Indiana dates back to a 1746 report on French settlements, which mentioned that forty white men and five black slaves lived in Vincennes along the Wabash River. Slavery persisted among the French residents during both French and English rule. Following the American Revolution, the U.S. Congress implemented the Ordinance of 1787 to regulate the newly acquired western territory, prohibiting slavery and involuntary servitude in the Northwest Territory.

Many of the earliest white settlers in Indiana brought their slaves from southern slave states. Upon the establishment of the Indiana Territory in 1800, proslavery political figures, such as Governor William Henry Harrison, passed laws circumventing the slavery ban in the Northwest Ordinance and limiting the rights of all African Americans in the Territory.^[1]

In 2010, the Census Bureau recorded that 591,397 individuals in Indiana identified themselves solely as black, without any other racial background.^[2]

See also[edit]

• History of slavery in Indiana
• List of African American newspapers in Indiana

References[edit]