note
the following subject matter may not be appropriate for mature audiences
& nobody was seriously asking for it besides

but i would like to float the idea of a recreational geographics so light
as to entertain points & lines & areas without regard to their real import
much as dmitri borgmann has presented the idea in recreational linguistics
of considering words without regard to their meaning

i mean
for maximum enjoyment please think of this mason dixon line as nobodys
fault but merely the stripe between chocolate & vanilla
or some such thing
& basically forget its real & hard edged meanings
except when absolutely needed to drive or humor the play

anyway there sure seems to be a lot of conflicting & unreliable info out
there about this whole mason dixon topic

from what i have been able to gather
the following data are probably reliable

the original mason dixon line
comprising the 4 distinct line segments actually surveyed or verified by
mason & dixon of what was then the maryland pennsylvania intercolonial
boundary
was begun by marking the present eastern boundary of maryland northward
from the present sw corner of delaware aka desw in 1763
& it may not have proceeded westward to its greater glory from the present
demdpa tristate point until 1765

the line as run from there inexplicably overshot its intended terminus at
the present mdpawv tristate point by 30 miles before being stopped by the
indians near present day maidsville west virginia in 1767

all together the line advanced in its first 3 segments about 87 miles
generally northward from modern desw to demdpa
& then about another 230 miles west from demdpa to the halting place
for a total distance of about 317 miles

it evidently crossed tidewater at least once
on the nanticoke river near mile 7

this original & only authentic mason dixon line was subsequently first
extended westward in express emulation of mason & dixon in 1784 by the
states of pennsylvania & virginia as far as the present sw corner of
pennsylvania & thence northward as far as the present ohpawv tristate point
which was at that time precisely on the north shore of the ohio river

& the story of the mason dixon line might have ended there as quietly as
all our other interstate boundaries end
had this particular tracery not chanced to form the dividing line between
the free state of pennsylvania & the slave states of maryland & virginia
& had it not thus become a code word for the great rift that was then
already developing between freedom & slavery
between the north & the south
& ultimately between the union & the confederacy

the fact that the slave state of delaware fell on the free or pennsylvania
side of the line nobody seems to have noticed

& this little anomaly
plus the additional inconvenient facts that there were some other slave
areas to the north of the original line & within the union
as well as some free areas to the south of it & within the confederacy
makes the whole idea of a single consistently meaningful mason dixon line
unthinkable to ludicrous

however or moreover the original mason dixon line does very effectively &
cleanly separate 2 ultimately rebellious states from 2 nonrebellious ones
if it is remembered that maryland was held within the union only by
military occupation & not by her own choice
& also that kentucky & west virginia were actually slave states that tilted
northward only within the context & course of the war

the real slavery or freedom line
if not also the line of political cleavage
both of which were in considerable uncertainty & flux both before & during
the war
pretty much became & remained the north shore of the ohio river from ohpawv
to the ilkymo tristate point near present day cairo illinois
ever since the northwest ordinance of 1787 proscribed slavery from the
right bank

& from there it ran since the missouri compromise of 1820 or the admission
of missouri as a slave state in 1821 up along the middle of the
mississippi river to the present iailmo tristate point near keokuk iowa

i dont know enough about the historical background nor any of the actual
particulars but
judging from their closely matching latitude bandwidths
missouri may have literally been modelled by template on the powerful &
pivotal slave state of virginia

for it looks as tho the territorial part of the compromise may have been to
project the latitude of the northern extremity of virginia as far west as
the meridian of the kansas & missouri river confluence at present day
kansas city
& then to drop south along this meridian line to the latitude of the
southern extremity of virginia everywhere west of there
& thus produce free territory everywhere westward of slaveholding missouri

i get the sense that that may have been the geographical compromise in
simplest terms but i dont really know this for a fact

anyway the fact that missouri never left the union was again as in the
case of maryland only by dint of military occupation

both were still slave states & south of the mason dixon line
as far as anyone was concerned

so from the iailmo point the mason dixon line proceeded generally westward
again along the north boundary of missouri
as far as the mentioned kansas river mouth meridian
or about 94d 37m 03s

& it ultimately continued west to the present day iamone tristate point
with the addition of the northwest wing of missouri in 1836
before descending the missouri river to the kansas mouth

but originally in the early 1820s the political divide turned south along
that meridian & followed it straight thru the kansas mouth & present ksmook
tristate point to the present armook tristate point
where it then turned west & ran along the 36d 30m latitude north line of
the old arkansas territory to the present northeast corner of the texas
panhandle

a subsequent transformation of the western part of the old arkansas
territory into indian territory in 1824
& hence from slave to merely displaced & dispossessed
since the indians had already freed their slaves by & large
preempted the mason dixon line southward from its originally westward
course thru present day oklahoma to a much more southeasterly meeting with
the republic of texas along the red river
& a second such transformation in 1828 actually displaced & set the line &
its terminus still farther back east to a point along the red river that is
today aroktx tristate

but when texas was finally admitted to the union as a slave state in 1845
the legal institution of slavery leapt to its most northerly & westerly
extension ever
indeed all the way back up the red river & panhandle & old north texas
stovepipe edge to the 42nd parallel & then westward to a point northwest of
present day rawlins wyoming
i kid you not
& thereafter dropping back a few miles south to the continental divide
where the national territory & dividing line abruptly ended at the mexican
boundary of that day

the huge mexican territorial cession of 1848 however in which slavery was
never legally permitted sent the mason dixon line crashing due south from
wyoming to the source of the rio grande in western colorado & thence down
that river nearly as far as el paso
where it then took a soft right & headed west along the new but still
uncertain international boundary with mexico to reach the pacific ocean in
a final long dash across the desert

the reduction of texas in 1850 to more or less its present size & shape
probably removed any last possibility of slavery from what are today the
states of oklahoma kansas colorado & wyoming
if indeed the institution ever reached the remote territory of those states
& the mason dixon line then receded south to the present boundaries of the
texas panhandle & western texas

the addition of the gadsden purchase in 1853 resolved the uncertainty about
the course of the mexican boundary & sent the no longer very meaningful
mason dixon line a bit farther south to the present mexican border

slavery may have been practiced in parts of latin america & in eastern new
mexico until 1850 when the latter was part of texas & all that territory
both domestic & foreign naturally leaned to the south right thru the civil
war

but the american institution of slavery appears never to have crossed
anywhere west of the rio grande

there were to be additional displacements & changes in the mason dixon line
until its practical discontinuation at the end of the civil war in 1865
most notably those caused by the northward tilt of kentucky in 1861 & of
west virginia in 1863
but the line such as it existed both in the popular imagination & on the
political map did effectively reach its pacific culmination with the
mexican cession of 1848
or at the least & latest it certainly did so with the admission of
california as a free state in 1850

end of story

however
& purely by way of fanciful postscript
it is striking that an enduring albeit considerably transformed cleavage
between north & south
& between free & slave in a sense
or at least between economically advantaged & disadvantaged
does appear to cling substantially to the mexican border even today

for our modern mason dixon successor line retraces its own ancestral
journey eastward from the pacific to the rio grande all right
but then resumes the restless search for truth as well by floating right
down that river clear to the gulf of mexico
to crown its good once again however backwards from sea to shining sea

mick