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Mason-Dixon Line
MASON-DIXON LINEMASON-DIXON LINE is the southern boundary line of Pennsylvania, and thereby the northern boundary line of Delaware, Maryland, and West Virginia, formerly part of Virginia. It is best known historically as the dividing line between slavery and free soil in the period of history before the Civil War, but to some extent it has remained the symbolic border line—political, cultural, and social—between North and South. The present Mason and Dixon line was the final result of several highly involved colonial and state boundary disputes. The first dispute was between Maryland and Pennsylvania. The Maryland Charter of 1632 granted to the Calvert family lands lying north of the Potomac River and "under the fortieth degree of Northerly Latitude." Almost fifty years later (1681), Charles II issued a charter making William Penn proprietor of lands between latitudes 40° N and 43° N and running west from the Delaware River though five degrees in longitude. The terms of the two charters were inconsistent and contradictory. A full century of dispute with regard to the southern boundary of Pennsylvania was the result. Had all Pennsylvania claims been substantiated, Baltimore would have been included in Pennsylvania, and Maryland reduced to a narrow strip. Had all Maryland claims been established, Philadelphia would have been within Maryland. In 1760, after years of conferences, appeals to the Privy Council, much correspondence, attempted occupation, forced removal of settlers, and temporary agreements, the Maryland and Pennsylvania proprietors reached an agreement to resolve the dispute. Under its terms, two English surveyors, Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, surveyed the boundary line. In 1767, after four years' work, Mason and Dixon located the boundary line between Maryland and Pennsylvania at 39° 44' north latitude. The crown ratified the results in 1769. In the meantime Virginia claimed most of what is now southwestern Pennsylvania. Both colonies tried to exercise jurisdiction in the area, which led to conflicts in 1774 and 1775. That dispute ended when joint commissioners of the two states agreed to extend the Mason and Dixon line westward, a settlement not completed until 1784. Historically the Mason-Dixon line embodies a Pennsylvania boundary triumph. BIBLIOGRAPHYBuck, Solon J., and Elizabeth H. Buck, The Planting of Civilization in Western Pennsylvania. Pittsburgh, Pa.: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1939. Danson, Edwin. Drawing the Line: How Mason and Dixon Surveyed the Most Famous Border in America. New York: John Wiley, 2001. Gray, Richard J. Writing the South: Ideas of an American Region. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1986. Illick, Joseph E. Colonial Pennsylvania: A History. New York: Scribners, 1976. Morrison, Charles. The Western Boundary of Maryland. Parson, W. Va.: McClain Print Co., 1976. Alfred P.James/c. p. See alsoBoundary Disputes Between States ; Maryland ; Pennsylvania ; Sectionalism ; South, the: The Antebellum South ; Surveying ; Virginia . |
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"Mason-Dixon Line." Dictionary of American History. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. 26 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "Mason-Dixon Line." Dictionary of American History. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. (May 26, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3401802559.html "Mason-Dixon Line." Dictionary of American History. 2003. Retrieved May 26, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3401802559.html |
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Mason-Dixon Line
Mason-Dixon Line the boundary between Maryland and Pennsylvania, named after the British astronomers, Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, who conducted the boundary survey in 1763-67. In the 1820 congressional debates over the Missouri Compromise, which determined the area where slavery would be allowed as the United States expanded, the term was first used to denote the line separating the slave states in the South from the free states in the North. Henceforth the name referred not only to the Maryland-Pennsylvania boundary but also to a line along the Ohio River from Pennsylvania to the Mississippi River, then along the east, north, and west boundaries of Missouri, and then west along the 36°30′ parallel.
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"Mason-Dixon Line." The Oxford Essential Dictionary of the U.S. Military. 2001. Encyclopedia.com. 26 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "Mason-Dixon Line." The Oxford Essential Dictionary of the U.S. Military. 2001. Encyclopedia.com. (May 26, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O63-MasonDixonLine.html "Mason-Dixon Line." The Oxford Essential Dictionary of the U.S. Military. 2001. Retrieved May 26, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O63-MasonDixonLine.html |
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Mason-Dixon Line
Mason-Dixon Line (or Mason and Dixon Line) The boundary line between Pennsylvania and Maryland, which was laid out in 1763–67 by the English surveyors Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon. The name was later applied to the entire southern boundary of Pennsylvania, and in the years before the American Civil War it represented the division between the Northern states and the slave-owning states of the South.
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"Mason-Dixon Line." A Dictionary of World History. 2000. Encyclopedia.com. 26 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "Mason-Dixon Line." A Dictionary of World History. 2000. Encyclopedia.com. (May 26, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O48-MasonDixonLine.html "Mason-Dixon Line." A Dictionary of World History. 2000. Retrieved May 26, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O48-MasonDixonLine.html |
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Mason–Dixon Line
Mason–Dixon Line in the US, the boundary between Maryland and Pennsylvania, taken as the northern limit of the slave-owning states before the abolition of slavery; it is named after Charles Mason (1730–87) and Jeremiah Dixon (1733–77), English astronomers, who defined most of the boundary between Pennsylvania and Maryland by survey in 1763–7.
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ELIZABETH KNOWLES. "Mason–Dixon Line." The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 2006. Encyclopedia.com. 26 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. ELIZABETH KNOWLES. "Mason–Dixon Line." The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 2006. Encyclopedia.com. (May 26, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O214-MasonDixonLine.html ELIZABETH KNOWLES. "Mason–Dixon Line." The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 2006. Retrieved May 26, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O214-MasonDixonLine.html |
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Mason-Dixon Line
Mason-Dixon Line Border of Pennsylvania with Maryland and West Virginia, USA. It is named after the men who surveyed it in the 1760s. It was regarded as the dividing line between slave and free states at the time of the Missouri Compromise (1820–21), and became the popular name for the boundary between North and South in the USA.
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"Mason-Dixon Line." World Encyclopedia. 2005. Encyclopedia.com. 26 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "Mason-Dixon Line." World Encyclopedia. 2005. Encyclopedia.com. (May 26, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O142-MasonDixonLine.html "Mason-Dixon Line." World Encyclopedia. 2005. Retrieved May 26, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O142-MasonDixonLine.html |
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Mason–Dixon line
Ma·son–Dix·on line / ˈdiksən/ (also Ma·son-Dix·on Line) • n. (in the U.S.) the boundary between Maryland and Pennsylvania, taken as the northern limit of the slave-owning states before the abolition of slavery. |
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"Mason–Dixon line." The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English. 2009. Encyclopedia.com. 26 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "Mason–Dixon line." The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English. 2009. Encyclopedia.com. (May 26, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O999-masondixonline.html "Mason–Dixon line." The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English. 2009. Retrieved May 26, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O999-masondixonline.html |
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