Great names in American history

[pat]

Between 1760 and 1767, two men representing the Penn and Calvert colonial families undertook a surveying project. By what name did this project become known once completed? And where was it located?



Between 1760 and 1767, Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon set out to determine the border between Maryland (of the Calverts) and Pennsylvania (of the Penns). The Mason-Dixon Line became known as the dividing line between North and South. Traditionally, Maryland has been viewed as a Southern state (as any reader of Southern Cooking magazine can tell you). A slave state before the Civil War, political and military pressures kept Maryland from seceding.

Comments

[wcg.livejournal.com]

Interestingly enough, there is also a Mason-Dixon line dividing Maryland from Delaware.

[klwalton.livejournal.com]

Whee! I knew this one!
(it's the little things :))

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

I'd wager the surveyors were Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, and the Mason Dixon line was the result.

A great song about them was written by Mark Knopfler, "Sailing to Philadelphia".

A duet with James Taylor.

TK