The Mason Dixon Line
For most of us the Mason Dixon Line is the Civil War demarcation between the North and the South. That historical context has nothing to do with the origin of a line the Civil War made famous. The Mason Dixon line dates back to a family feud in colonial times. In the 1700’s the border between Penn family holdings in Pennsylvania and Calvert family holdings in Maryland was in dispute. The dispute escalated into all-out war, sometimes called the Cresap War. It lasted eighty years.
Weary of the dispute, King George II stepped in to broker a truce. Bowing to royal pressure the families agreed to commission a survey to resolve the dispute by fixing a border both sides would respect. They hired English astronomer Charles Mason and surveyor Jeremiah- you guessed it- Dixon to survey the two hundred thirty three mile border. Mason and Dixon completed their work in 1767, establishing a border marked out in stone that cleverly became known as- The Mason Dixon line.
In the latter years of the 1700’s the line became a symbol of another dispute. This time it was the future of the practice of slaveholding. States south of the line favored the practice while those to the north opposed it. The Mason Dixon line became a blueprint for the Missouri Compromise of 1820, which governed territorial disputes over slavery until the 1850’s.
As we discovered in our series on choosing a route for the transcontinental railroad, the slavery issue could not be resolved legislatively. The dispute would ultimately burst into bloodshed. The Mason Dixon Line extrapolated along the lines of secession, absent the celestial precision of its origin. Symbolically the Confederacy’s assault on territory north of the fabled line was thrown back at Gettysburg in Pennsylvania, beginning the end of resolving the dispute.
https://www.amazon.com/author/paulcolt
Ride easy,
Paul
Weary of the dispute, King George II stepped in to broker a truce. Bowing to royal pressure the families agreed to commission a survey to resolve the dispute by fixing a border both sides would respect. They hired English astronomer Charles Mason and surveyor Jeremiah- you guessed it- Dixon to survey the two hundred thirty three mile border. Mason and Dixon completed their work in 1767, establishing a border marked out in stone that cleverly became known as- The Mason Dixon line.
In the latter years of the 1700’s the line became a symbol of another dispute. This time it was the future of the practice of slaveholding. States south of the line favored the practice while those to the north opposed it. The Mason Dixon line became a blueprint for the Missouri Compromise of 1820, which governed territorial disputes over slavery until the 1850’s.
As we discovered in our series on choosing a route for the transcontinental railroad, the slavery issue could not be resolved legislatively. The dispute would ultimately burst into bloodshed. The Mason Dixon Line extrapolated along the lines of secession, absent the celestial precision of its origin. Symbolically the Confederacy’s assault on territory north of the fabled line was thrown back at Gettysburg in Pennsylvania, beginning the end of resolving the dispute.
https://www.amazon.com/author/paulcolt
Ride easy,
Paul
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