Strader V. Graham

Strader v. Graham, 51 U.S. 82 (1851), was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that the status of three slaves who went from Kentucky to Indiana and Ohio depended on Kentucky law rather than Ohio law. The original plaintiff was Christopher Graham, whose three slaves had traveled to Cincinnati, Ohio aboard a steamboat owned by Jacob Strader and James Gorman and piloted by John Armstrong. The slaves later escaped to Canada. The U.S. Supreme Court recognized the authority of the Northwest Ordinance of 1789 over its applicable territories in Strader v. Graham, 51 U.S. 82, 96, 97 (1851), but did not extend the Northwest Ordinance to cover respective states which were later admitted to the Union.