Without getting into the constitutionality of the prohibition of slavery in the Northwest Ordinance (we are talking about a property right, after all -- imagine the difficulty faced by a public law that forbade people to own real estate in the territories), I was wondering how the Virginia abolitionists intended to accomplish emancipation, and what their plans were for the emancipated slaves. Have you seen anything about that? Redemption would have been enormously expensive and would have required some very serious taxes -- and since they didn't tax income back then, the burden would have fallen on the planters, who in effect might have been required to buy their own slaves.
I was wondering how the Virginia abolitionists intended to accomplish emancipation, and what their plans were for the emancipated slaves. I have not explored that issue, but I suspect that it would have been similar to what many of the northern states had done when they eliminated slavery --- a Grandfather arrangement where current slaves remained "property" for life but children of those slaves would either be born free or entitled to freedom at age 21.
That is just a guess. I'll have to do some research to find more information. Virginia, to their credit, would have taken a much larger economic hit than say New York or New Jersey who were both late in ending slavery in the North, but the record shows that there was a near majority in Virginia for doing so in the Jacksonian era.
Sadly, a “missed opportunity” that could have changed the course of history.