| Show x x a al Controversy Ended by Mason and Dixon Line As a boundary division ision the L L and Dixon line got Its name from the two men who surveyed sun and established it Charles Mason and John Dixon It was vis run b by a agreement between the Ca I erts ofIa of Ia Maryland and William lIam Penn Ienn to settle a controversy rg a regard regarding II ing lug the boundary line between Penn felon Pennsylvania sylvania s and Maryland Mason Iason and Dixon came from England In 1 for that express purpose They rhey were both men of scientific attainments Mason Iason assistant at the thero time being beins a at one roal al atory atory at Greenwich The They run ran the line with great care cutting a space eight feet wide through the forest and setting up a stone at the end of ot each mile Ever Every fifth stone was larger than the others and had hadon hadon hadon on toe tee north side sille the arms of William of Lord those the south eLa and on Baltimore The smaller Intermediate the north stones had the letter IEtter P on surface and M I on the south for Pennsylvania and Maryland The line has nothing to do with slavery except as ts It ultimately became the boundary Ine between free states and the slave though that was not the thou thought ht at the time line Wh When n the line was established slavery slaver existed In Pennsylvania as It did In the colonies and was not abol abol- abolish abolished ish ell In Penns Pennsylvania hania until 1780 and then only b by a law providing that all colored persons thereafter born within the state should be set free at the age ot of twenty-eight twenty years |
