1 00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:07,120 Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeart Radio. Hey brain Stuff, 2 00:00:07,160 --> 00:00:11,640 Speaker 1: Lauren Vogel Bam. Here ask a Southerner where the South begins, 3 00:00:11,720 --> 00:00:14,440 Speaker 1: and you might get answers like where one syllable words 4 00:00:14,440 --> 00:00:17,840 Speaker 1: become two or three, or where the most honored foods 5 00:00:17,840 --> 00:00:21,040 Speaker 1: are grits engravy. In other words, the South should begin 6 00:00:21,160 --> 00:00:25,360 Speaker 1: in Richmond, Virginia, or Lexington, Kentucky, or even Wheeling, West Virginia. 7 00:00:25,760 --> 00:00:28,639 Speaker 1: But the Mason Dixon Line, which has been regarded for 8 00:00:28,680 --> 00:00:31,120 Speaker 1: two hundred years as the transition between the north and 9 00:00:31,160 --> 00:00:34,680 Speaker 1: the South in the United States, turns that conventional sociological 10 00:00:34,720 --> 00:00:38,480 Speaker 1: thinking upside down. The Mason Dixon Line runs between Maryland 11 00:00:38,560 --> 00:00:42,880 Speaker 1: and Pennsylvania and Delaware, which are all three considered northern states. 12 00:00:43,159 --> 00:00:45,960 Speaker 1: So if the Mason Dixon Line really is the dividing 13 00:00:46,000 --> 00:00:48,519 Speaker 1: line between the north and south, why then does it 14 00:00:48,600 --> 00:00:51,680 Speaker 1: put in Maryland in the south. The Mason Dixon Line 15 00:00:51,760 --> 00:00:54,840 Speaker 1: is not some geographical folk paw. It's the result of 16 00:00:54,880 --> 00:00:58,040 Speaker 1: one of the most significant surveying achievements in North America. 17 00:00:58,280 --> 00:01:02,160 Speaker 1: It was named for Charles Mason, and astronomer and Jeremiah Dixon, 18 00:01:02,240 --> 00:01:06,000 Speaker 1: a surveyor who introduced surveying techniques to North America that 19 00:01:06,040 --> 00:01:08,040 Speaker 1: would go on to be used to draw boundary lines 20 00:01:08,080 --> 00:01:11,840 Speaker 1: for western states in the US. We spoke with Todd Babcock, 21 00:01:11,920 --> 00:01:14,800 Speaker 1: a Pennsylvania surveyor and founder of the Mason and Dixon 22 00:01:14,840 --> 00:01:18,920 Speaker 1: Line Preservation Partnership. He said, in many respects, the techniques 23 00:01:18,959 --> 00:01:21,200 Speaker 1: we use today are very similar to those used by 24 00:01:21,240 --> 00:01:24,039 Speaker 1: Mason and Dixon. I used the analogy that Mason and 25 00:01:24,080 --> 00:01:27,120 Speaker 1: Dixon used the constellation of stars to guide them, and 26 00:01:27,200 --> 00:01:31,000 Speaker 1: today we use a constellation of satellites. Mason and Dixon, 27 00:01:31,040 --> 00:01:34,120 Speaker 1: who were English, were hired in seventeen sixty three by 28 00:01:34,120 --> 00:01:36,679 Speaker 1: the King of England to settle a land dispute between 29 00:01:36,760 --> 00:01:40,800 Speaker 1: two aristocratic colonial families then headed by William Penn the 30 00:01:40,800 --> 00:01:44,760 Speaker 1: Second and Charles Calvert. The two families quarreled and fought 31 00:01:44,800 --> 00:01:48,160 Speaker 1: over land for decades. The colonial landowners along the line 32 00:01:48,200 --> 00:01:51,240 Speaker 1: separating the two proprietors land feared being asked to pay 33 00:01:51,280 --> 00:01:54,480 Speaker 1: taxes to both the Pens and the Calverts because both 34 00:01:54,480 --> 00:01:58,080 Speaker 1: families were claiming the same land. So Mason and Dixon 35 00:01:58,240 --> 00:02:00,960 Speaker 1: spent fifty eight months survey being a two hundred and 36 00:02:00,960 --> 00:02:04,160 Speaker 1: thirty three mile that's three seventy four kilometer stretch of 37 00:02:04,280 --> 00:02:08,320 Speaker 1: land from Philadelphia westward. It was mostly wilderness, and they 38 00:02:08,440 --> 00:02:12,359 Speaker 1: established the boundaries of Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, and what was 39 00:02:12,400 --> 00:02:15,360 Speaker 1: then Virginia and is now West Virginia. It became a 40 00:02:15,400 --> 00:02:18,600 Speaker 1: steadfast boundary. The pens were to the north with Philadelphia 41 00:02:18,680 --> 00:02:20,960 Speaker 1: as their hub, and the calverts to the south with 42 00:02:21,040 --> 00:02:24,320 Speaker 1: Baltimore as their hub. The Mason Dixon line also included 43 00:02:24,360 --> 00:02:26,520 Speaker 1: the eighty three mile that's one hundred and thirty three 44 00:02:26,560 --> 00:02:30,200 Speaker 1: kilometer north south border between what was then Pennsylvania, now 45 00:02:30,240 --> 00:02:33,880 Speaker 1: Delaware and eastern Maryland. The line starts in the southwest 46 00:02:33,919 --> 00:02:37,400 Speaker 1: corner of Delaware and runs north. It was meticulous and 47 00:02:37,440 --> 00:02:40,200 Speaker 1: painstaking work at that time, as the men used the 48 00:02:40,240 --> 00:02:43,720 Speaker 1: stars as guidance to follow a line of latitude. Mason 49 00:02:43,760 --> 00:02:46,720 Speaker 1: and Dixon, with Iroquois guides leading a traveling party of 50 00:02:46,760 --> 00:02:50,079 Speaker 1: about a hundred and twenty axe men, wagon drivers and attendants, 51 00:02:50,400 --> 00:02:53,560 Speaker 1: cut through virgin forest as they went westward. The men 52 00:02:53,720 --> 00:02:56,639 Speaker 1: used in astronomical clock they brought from England to help 53 00:02:56,639 --> 00:03:00,560 Speaker 1: determine the ellipticity of the Earth. Babcock said it added 54 00:03:00,600 --> 00:03:02,800 Speaker 1: to our understanding of the shape of the Earth and 55 00:03:02,919 --> 00:03:05,440 Speaker 1: that it wasn't a perfect sphere, it was bulging in 56 00:03:05,480 --> 00:03:08,120 Speaker 1: the middle, and while Mason and Dixon found that while 57 00:03:08,160 --> 00:03:11,639 Speaker 1: the earth was indeed round, it had undulations. The men 58 00:03:11,720 --> 00:03:14,400 Speaker 1: also used a zenith sector, which is a graduated arc 59 00:03:14,400 --> 00:03:17,640 Speaker 1: of a vertical circle, paired with a telescope and plumb line. 60 00:03:18,040 --> 00:03:21,760 Speaker 1: Their tripod mounted surveying tool, known as a Bird Transit 61 00:03:21,840 --> 00:03:25,440 Speaker 1: after its inventor, John Bird, was thought lost in history's dustbin, 62 00:03:25,760 --> 00:03:29,000 Speaker 1: but was discovered by accident in Philadelphia, restored, and now 63 00:03:29,080 --> 00:03:32,440 Speaker 1: sits an exhibit in Independence Hall. Babcock says the men 64 00:03:32,600 --> 00:03:36,920 Speaker 1: painstakingly placed limestone posts, also brought from England, at each 65 00:03:37,040 --> 00:03:40,600 Speaker 1: mile along the way, while crown stones were set every 66 00:03:40,640 --> 00:03:44,200 Speaker 1: five miles or eight kilometers. These crown stones were carved 67 00:03:44,200 --> 00:03:45,800 Speaker 1: with the letter C on the southern side of the 68 00:03:45,880 --> 00:03:48,640 Speaker 1: rock for Calvert and a P on the northern side 69 00:03:48,640 --> 00:03:51,520 Speaker 1: for Pen. Some stones had the Pen coat of arms 70 00:03:51,560 --> 00:03:54,960 Speaker 1: and others the Calvert coat of arms. Stones were massive 71 00:03:55,080 --> 00:03:57,080 Speaker 1: and weighed as much as five hundred to seven hundred 72 00:03:57,120 --> 00:03:59,760 Speaker 1: pounds that's surround two hundred and twenty to three hundred 73 00:03:59,760 --> 00:04:03,040 Speaker 1: and any kilo's apiece. So when Mason and Dixon and 74 00:04:03,080 --> 00:04:06,360 Speaker 1: the team got to the Appalachian Mountains around Hancock, Maryland. 75 00:04:06,560 --> 00:04:09,240 Speaker 1: They had to stop placing them because they simply weighed 76 00:04:09,280 --> 00:04:12,040 Speaker 1: too much. They used wooden posts the rest of the way. 77 00:04:12,280 --> 00:04:14,480 Speaker 1: They had traveled a hundred and thirty two miles that's 78 00:04:14,520 --> 00:04:18,920 Speaker 1: two hundred and twelve kilometers from Philadelphia in the Mason 79 00:04:18,920 --> 00:04:22,039 Speaker 1: and Dixon Line. Preservation Partnership was formed between a group 80 00:04:22,080 --> 00:04:24,680 Speaker 1: of surveyors from Maryland and a group of surveyors from 81 00:04:24,720 --> 00:04:28,200 Speaker 1: Pennsylvania to conduct an inventory of the original hundred and 82 00:04:28,200 --> 00:04:31,320 Speaker 1: dirty two markers. They found all but ten. Floods the 83 00:04:31,360 --> 00:04:34,400 Speaker 1: Civil War, farmers cutting fields, and people using them for 84 00:04:34,440 --> 00:04:37,960 Speaker 1: target practice had left many of the stones damaged or destroyed. 85 00:04:38,480 --> 00:04:41,279 Speaker 1: But what about This surveying led to the Mason Dixon 86 00:04:41,320 --> 00:04:44,280 Speaker 1: Line becoming the unofficial dividing line between where the North 87 00:04:44,400 --> 00:04:48,040 Speaker 1: ends and the South begins. That's where politics comes in. 88 00:04:48,040 --> 00:04:52,680 Speaker 1: In eighteen twenty, Maryland was the northernmost slave state. Pennsylvania 89 00:04:52,760 --> 00:04:55,680 Speaker 1: was a free state. As part of the Missouri Compromise 90 00:04:55,800 --> 00:04:58,159 Speaker 1: that sought to even out the number of slave states 91 00:04:58,160 --> 00:05:01,040 Speaker 1: and free states, Maryland was relegated added to the South 92 00:05:01,200 --> 00:05:03,960 Speaker 1: because of its practice of slavery. The U. S Congress 93 00:05:03,960 --> 00:05:06,840 Speaker 1: then declared that territories south of the Mason Dixon line 94 00:05:06,920 --> 00:05:10,200 Speaker 1: were slave states, and because the South was holding tight 95 00:05:10,240 --> 00:05:13,800 Speaker 1: to the idea of slavery, Maryland was the South. Slaves 96 00:05:13,800 --> 00:05:16,800 Speaker 1: were free once they stepped into Pennsylvania, at least until 97 00:05:16,880 --> 00:05:19,839 Speaker 1: the Fugitive Slave Act of eighteen fifty. The Mason Dixon 98 00:05:19,880 --> 00:05:22,640 Speaker 1: Line was a boundary and a symbol that still holds weight, 99 00:05:23,200 --> 00:05:25,920 Speaker 1: but it's also an important historical note in the science 100 00:05:25,960 --> 00:05:29,440 Speaker 1: of surveying. Every fence erected between neighbor's yards and pink 101 00:05:29,520 --> 00:05:32,000 Speaker 1: ribbon tied to steel steak is a descendant of the 102 00:05:32,040 --> 00:05:40,200 Speaker 1: work of Mason and Dixon. Today's episode was written by 103 00:05:40,240 --> 00:05:42,960 Speaker 1: Ray Glear and produced by Tyler Plang. For more on 104 00:05:42,960 --> 00:05:44,840 Speaker 1: this and lots of other topics, visit how Stuff works 105 00:05:44,839 --> 00:05:47,400 Speaker 1: dot com. Brain Stuff is a production of i heeart Radio. 106 00:05:47,760 --> 00:05:50,400 Speaker 1: More podcasts in my heart Radio visit the iHeart Radio app, 107 00:05:50,480 --> 00:05:53,080 Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.