The Territory denies citizenship to Blacks and supports the rights of slave owners who arrive with slaves.

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Enslavement and slave trading were forbidden in the Washington Territory. However, it was possible to bring slaves into the territory, and there are examples of this happening.

In 1858 the Territory recognized the 1857 Dred Scott decision of the US Supreme Court which ruled that the descendants of slaves, whether they were enslaved or free, could not be citizens of the US, and that the federal government could not regulate slavery in the territories.  Learn more…