Born in 1775 in Montgomery County, Maryland, Ninian Edwards moved to Kentucky in 1794, was elected to the Kentucky legislature in 1795, and was appointed Chief Justice of the Kentucky Court of Appeals in 1808 before moving to the Illinois Territory in 1809. Appointed governor of the Illinois Territory under President James Madison, he led the territory toward statehood from 1809 to 1818. In 1818 he was chosen by the Illinois State General Assembly as Illinois' first United States Senator, won election to the same seat in 1819, and resigned in 1824 after being appointed the first United States Minister to Mexico. Elected Illinois's third governor, he served from 1825 to 1830, during which he led Illinois through the Winnebago War and the Black Hawk War and forcibly removed Native peoples from their land as the state's white population grew from 54,000 to 155,000 between 1820 and 1830. Although Article VI of the Northwest Ordinance barred slavery and involuntary servitude except as punishment for crimes, it did not outlaw indentured servitude, and Edwards brought twelve enslaved people to the Illinois Territory as indentured servants and in 1817 vetoed a bill that would have abolished indentured servitude. As territorial and state governor, he supported using the militia against Native Americans, ordered action against what he called hostile incursions, sought to drive Native peoples from their residences, and in 1827, with the support of President Andrew Jackson, worked to force all Native American tribes from Illinois to west of the Mississippi River. That forced relocation led to the Black Hawk War, during which 150 Native American men were killed, 39 Native American women and children were imprisoned, Black Hawk was captured, and the United States government took control of 30 million acres of Native American land, forcing Native Americans to leave Illinois. After his governorship he moved to Belleville, Illinois, worked as a lawyer and politician, studied medical books in his free time, treated people infected with cholera, contracted the disease himself, and died in Belleville on July 20, 1933.