Mason-Dixon Line

Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon

The line, now extending from the Atlantic Ocean to the Ohio River in West Virginia, gets its name from English astronomers and surveyors Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon. They were hired in 1763 to settle a 100-year-long dispute deriving from conflicting boundaries between Maryland and Pennsylvania and Delaware and Maryland. The Calvert family, the founding family of Maryland, and William Penn's family of Pennsylvania each had claims to territory north of the Potomac and near the 40th degree North latitude, stemming from royal land charters in 1632 and 1681, respectively. Mason and Dixon began their survey in 1763 at the Delaware River and finished 233 miles later in 1767 near Mount Morris, Pennsylvania. They placed markers with the Calvert and Penn family crests every five miles along most of the line, many of which remain. The line was extended to the Ohio along the 39° 43’ 19.521″ north latitude.

Historically, the line has symbolized the separation of the north from the southern slave states of the Civil War. South of the Mason-Dixon Line, the culture included the heritage of British and French settlers as well as that of the slaves of African descent. The new reality is that 16 percent of the population is now Hispanic and 15 percent is African American.

Symbols of the Mason-Dixon Line abound, from the Confederate flag to magnolia blossoms, from plantations to tobacco farms, from sweet tea and grits to NASCAR racing and college football, from southern gospel to the Grand Ole Opry. A look at these and other aspects of life south of the Mason-Dixon Line demonstrates the persistence and cultural power of this image, despite changes in demographics and economic realities.

The Mason-Dixon Line's most prominent symbolism is that of a border between free and slave states and the Civil War. Those 11 states south of the Mason-Dixon Line included the seven original states of the Confederacy: South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas; then the additional four that came after the April 1860 battle of Fort Sumter: North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, and Arkansas. Strong cultural ties also are held by portions of Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, and Oklahoma.

For demographic purposes, the area “south of the Mason-Dixon Line” is the southern census area: Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia.

Culture south of the Mason-Dixon Line historically has the most ties to British, French, and African cultures, reflecting the historical immigration patterns and the influx of African slaves. Although new cultural influences are being introduced with the rapid increase in the Hispanic population in the United States and in the south, the mythic concept of the Mason-Dixon line still persists.

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