page_title: History of Indiana
section_title: Founding
hierarchical_section_title: History of Indiana / Statehood / Founding
caption_attribution_description: Old Indiana Capitol and Historic Marker in Corydon, Indiana
context_page_description: The history of human activity in Indiana, a U.S. state in the Midwest, began with migratory tribes of Native Americans who inhabited Indiana as early as 8000 BC. Tribes succeeded one another in dominance for several thousand years and reached their peak of development during the period of Mississippian culture. The region entered recorded history in the 1670s when the first Europeans came to Indiana and claimed the territory for the Kingdom of France. After France ruled for a century, it was defeated by Great Britain in the French and Indian War and ceded its territory east of the Mississippi River. Britain held the land for more than twenty years, until after its defeat in the American Revolutionary War, then ceded the entire trans-Allegheny region, including what is now Indiana, to the newly formed United States.
  The U.S. government divided the trans-Allegheny region into several new territories. The largest of these was the Northwest Territory, which the U.S. Congress subsequently subdivided into several smaller territories. In 1800, Indiana Territory became the first of these new territories established.
context_section_description: In early 1816, the Territory approved a census and Pennington was named to be the census enumerator. The population of the territory was found to be 63,897, above the cutoff required for statehood. A constitutional convention met on June 10, 1816, in Corydon. Because of the heat of the season, the delegation moved outdoors on many days and wrote the constitution beneath the shade of a giant elm tree. The state's first constitution was completed on June 29, and elections were held in August to fill the offices of the new state government. In November Congress approved statehood.
  Jennings and his supporters had control of the convention and Jennings was elected its president. Other notable delegates at the convention included Dennis Pennington, Davis Floyd, and William Hendricks. Pennington and Jennings were at the forefront of the effort to prevent slavery from entering Indiana and sought to create a constitutional ban on it. Pennington was quoted as saying "Let us be on our guard when our convention men are chosen that they be men opposed to slavery". They succeeded in their goal and a ban was placed in the new constitution. But, persons already held in bondage stayed in that status for some time. That same year Indiana statehood was approved by Congress. While settlers did not want slavery, they also wanted to exclude free blacks, and established barriers to their immigration to the state.
  Jonathan Jennings, whose motto was "No slavery in Indiana", was elected governor of the state, defeating Thomas Posey 5,211 to 3,934 votes. Jennings served two terms as governor and then went on to represent the state in congress for another 18 years. Upon election, Jennings declared Indiana a free state. The abolitionists won a key victory in the 1820 Indiana Supreme Court case of Polly v. Lasselle, which stated that even slaves purchased before Indiana statehood were free; in the case In re Mary Clark, a Woman of Color involving an indentured servant, the Indiana Supreme Court decided, in 1821, that indentured servitude was merely a ruse for slavery and was therefore prohibited. Slavery was finally extinct by 1830.
  As the northern tribal lands gradually opened to white settlement, Indiana's population rapidly increased and the center of population shifted continually northward. One of the most significant post-frontier events in Indiana occurred in 1818 with the signing of the Treaty of St. Mary's at St. Mary's, Ohio  to acquire Indian lands south of the Wabash from the Delaware and others.  The area comprised about 1/3 of the present day area of Indiana, the central portion, and was called the "New Purchase".  Eventually, 35 new counties were carved out of the New Purchase.  An area like a large bite in the middle of the northern boundary was reserved to the Miami, called the Big Miami Reserve, which was the largest Indian reservation ever to exist in Indiana. Indianapolis was selected to be the site of the new state capital in 1820 because of its central position within the state and assumed good water transportation. However the founders were disappointed to discover the White River was too sandy for navigation. In 1825, Indianapolis replaced Corydon as the seat of government. The government became established in the Marion County Courthouse as the second state capital building.
caption: Indiana's First State Capitol Building
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