| Show lE H x A X l Y f y x X iE Fr x X Ff E i E F X X 1 Controversy Ended by Mason and Dixon Line As a boundary division the L and Dixon line got its name from the two men who surveyed and established It Charles Mason and John Dixon It was run hy by agreement u between the of Maryland and William Penn to settle a controversy ers re regard regard regard-In ard ing In the he boundary line between Penn Ienn Pennsylvania sylvania andlar and lar Maryland Mason Iason anI and Dixon came from England In 1701 for that express purpose They were both men of scientific attainments Mason Masona 11 a one time being assistant at the thero al roul rOal observatory at Greenwich The They ran the line with great care cutting n a space eight feet wide through h the forest and setting up a n stone at the end of each mile Every fifth filth stone was larger than the others and hud had hudon hadon ha don on roe toe north side side the arms of William PeL Pets and on the south those of Lord Baltimore The smaller intermediate stones had the letter INter P on the north surface and M 1 on the south for tor Pennsylvania and Maryland The line has nothing to do with slavery except as IS It ultimately became the boundary line between free states and the slave though that was liS not the thought at the theline line lime When the line was established slaver slavery existed in lenns Pennsylvania as It did in the colonies and was not abol abolished Ishell In Pennsylvania hanla until 1780 and then lien only by a law providing that all colored persons thereafter born within the state should be he set free at the age of twenty-eight twenty years |
