Slavery had been tolerated when the United States first took control of the Northwest Territory as a necessity to keep peace with the natives and the French.
When Indiana Territory was established in 1800, William Henry Harrison, a slaveholder, had been appointed governor and slavery has become largely accepted through a series of laws enacted by the appointed legislature.
Harrison had moved to Vincennes, the capital of the newly established Indiana Territory, on January 10, 1801.
While in Vincennes, Harrison builds a plantation style home he names Grouseland for its many birds.
It is one of the first brick structures in the territory.
The home (today restored and a popular modern tourist attraction) serves as the center of social and political life in the territory.
He also builds a second home near Corydon, the second capital, at Harrison Valley.
As governor, Harrison has wide ranging powers in the new territory, including the authority to appoint all territorial officials, and the territorial legislature, and to control the division of the territory into political districts.
A primary responsibility is to obtain title to native lands.
This will allow American settlement to expand and increase U.S. population to enable the region to gain statehood.
Harrison is eager to expand the territory for personal reasons as well, as his political fortunes are tied to Indiana's rise to statehood.
In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson had granted Harrison authority to negotiate and conclude treaties with the natives.
Harrison has supervised the development of thirteen treaties, through which the territory has purchased more than 60,000,000 acres (240,000 km2) of land from native leaders, including much of present-day southern Indiana.
The 1804 Treaty of St. Louis with Quashquame leads to the surrender by the Sauk and Meskwaki of much of western Illinois and parts of Missouri.
This treaty and loss of lands are greatly resented by many of the Sauk, especially Black Hawk, and will be the primary reason the Sauk side with Great Britain during the War of 1812.
Harrison thinks the Treaty of Grouseland in 1805 had appeased some of the issues for natives, but tensions remain high on the frontier.
The 1809 Treaty of Fort Wayne raised new tensions.
Harrison purchases from the Miami tribe, who claim ownership of the land, more than two and a half million acres (ten thousand square kilometers) of land inhabited by Shawnee, Kickapoo, Wea, and Piankeshaw peoples.
Harrison rushes the process by offering large subsidies to the tribes and their leaders so that he could have the treaty in place before President Jefferson leaves office and the administration changes.
The tribes living on the lands are furious and seek to have the treaty overturned but are unsuccessful.
Harrison ignores a protest made by Tecumseh.
Opposition against slavery had begun to organize in Indiana around 1805, and in 1809 abolitionists take control of the territorial legislature and overturn many of the pro-slavery laws.
