​ Mason Dixon-Line: Stories Behind a Geographic Boundary

I'm all bound round with the Mason Dixon Line, a piece of sheet music (Source: Library of Congress)

Born as the result of a bitter territorial dispute over royal land grants, the Mason-Dixon Line was surveyed between 1763 and 1767 to settle the boundaries for Pennsylvania and Maryland. After 1820, when the Missouri Compromise created political conditions which made the line important to the history of slavery, it became associated with the division between the free and slave states. Today the line is still seen by many as a symbolic dividing line for regional attitudes and customs. This program explores the story of the line, which runs through our land and our history, along with the perceptions that have developed about the boundary.