CHAPTER 1: OLD-WORLD PREJUDICE, NEW-WORLD DREAMS
“evil in religion”: Krugler, p. 28.
“20. and odd Negroes”: Sluiter, pp. 395–398.
“the dear companion and only comfort”: Krugler, p. 70.
“from the middst . . . of them dyed” and “I am determined . . . to deserve it”: Proceedings of the Council of Maryland, 1636–1667, vol. 3, p. 16.
CHAPTER 2: MARYLAND’S SHORES
“which lieth under . . . New England ends”: Charter of Maryland.
“to preserve unity . . . or in England,” “be done as privately as may be,” and “treate the Protestants . . . Justice will permitt”: Hall, p. 16.
“the most delightfull water I ever saw,” “At our first . . . all the Country,” and “came in a . . . unto them all”: Ibid., p. 40.
“gave leave to . . . where we pleased”: Ibid., p. 41.
“axes, hoes, cloth and hatchets”: Ibid., p. 42.
“The cedar you . . . usefull tymber trees”: Ibid., p. 158.
CHAPTER 3: CONVICTIONS AND CONSCIENCE
“could not contain himself from weeping aloud” and “saw the tears running down his cheeks”: Peare, p. 23.
“Imbroidery and diamonds . . . so much overcome” and “both the King . . . at the window”: Pepys, vol. 2, pp. 82–83.
“He, with certain . . . pray’d amongst themselves”: Penn, vol. 1, p. 1.
“endeavoured by both Words and Blows” and “turn’d him out of Doors”: Ibid., p. 2.
“a great deal . . . will signify little”: Pepys, vol. 5, p. 257.
“Preach and Speak”: Penn, vol. 1, p. 9.
“Because I do not . . . be any Respect,” “Contempt of the Court,” “I desire it . . . should be fined,” “I desire you . . . ground my Indictment,” and “the Common-Law”: Ibid., p. 11.
“The Question is . . . there is no Transgression”: Ibid., p. 12.
“Gentlemen, you shall . . . starve for it,” “should be Free, and not Compelled,” “You are Englishmen . . . away your Right,” and “Nor will we ever do it”: Ibid., p. 15.
CHAPTER 4: THE SEED OF A NATION
“a profitable plantation to the crown”: Soderlund, p. 23.
“to extend Westwards . . . New Castle” and “by a straight . . . Longitude above mentioned”: Pennsylvania Charter.
“the seed of a nation” and “God has given . . . oppress his person”: Soderlund, p. 55.
“So farewell to . . . but remains forever” Ibid., p. 170.
Richard Townsend . . . needs with care: Peare, pp. 245–246.
“about 80 houses . . . above 300 farms settled”: Soderlund, p. 292.
CHAPTER 5: WHOSE LAND?
“strainger in the affaires of the Country,” “the business of the bounds,” “observing our just limitts,” and “Just & friendly”: Calvert Papers, vol. 1, pp. 322–323.
“pay any more taxes . . . law of Maryland”: Soderlund, p. 79.
“But as the Line . . . Southward of them”: Minutes of the Provincial Council of Pennsylvania, vol. 3, p. 470.
“so long as he behaves . . . Friendship with the Indians”: Proceedings of the Council of Maryland, 1732–1753, vol. 28, p. 7.
“he lived in the Jurisdiction . . . no right to be there”: Pennsylvania Archives, series 1, vol. 1, p. 398.
“If the Lord Baltimore . . . Apply to the King,” “they have . . . Penn was their King,” “being or pretending to be Inhabitants of Pennsylvania,” “Riotous manner Armed . . . Weapons,” and “Ten pounds Current Money of this our Province”: Proceedings of the Council of Maryland, 1732–1753, vol. 28, pp. 21–22.
“have offered large . . . house on fire”: Ibid., p. 69.
“came with about twenty . . . Blunderbusses & Drum beating”: Pennsylvania Archives, series 1, vol. 1, p. 465.
“armed with guns, pistols, and swords”: Calvert Papers, microfilm reel 21, no. 319.
“high Crimes & Misdemeanors”: Pennsylvania Archives, series 1, vol. 1, p. 489.
“they would not depart . . . dead or alive”: Calvert Papers, microfilm reel 21, no. 319.
“Quakeing Dogs & Rogues”: Pennsylvania Archives, series 1, vol. 1, p. 505.
“who was very big . . . with the Fright”: Calvert Papers, microfilm reel 21, no. 319.
“This is one of the Prettyest Towns in Maryland”: Pennsylvania Archives, series 1, vol. 1, p. 510.
“the Governors . . . Borders of their respective Provinces”: Proceedings of the Council of Maryland, 1732–1753, vol. 28, pp. 130–131.
“Nothing is more certain . . . perpetually to quarrell”: Pennsylvania Archives, series 1, vol. 1, p. 483.
“This morning our Workmen . . . enlarge their wages” and “till late at night often to the mid-thigh in water”: Calvert Papers, microfilm reel 22, no. 469.
“I pray to be released . . . Lenth of 80 miles”: Lukens to Peters, June 16, 1762, Chew Family Papers, collection 2050, box 25, folder 64.
“three different offsets of the line”: Lukens to Peters, August 29, 1762, Ibid.
CHAPTER 6: STARS IN THEIR EYES
“We wait for nothing but a fair wind”: Mason and Dixon to Thomas Birch, November 24, 1760, American Philosophical Society, Mason and Dixon Papers, B. M381.
“Our loss amounts to 11 killed . . . her Hull much wounded” and “take up so much time . . . Observations upon the Transit”: Dixon to Birch, January 12, 1761, Ibid.
“easily turned to any part of the heavens”: Mason, C. and J. Dixon, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, 1761: vol. 52, p. 379.
tarred the top . . . joints with putty: Expense receipt, Charles Mason to Nevil Maskelyne, January 2, 1762, American Philosophical Society, Mason and Dixon Papers, B. M381.
“Persons intirely accomplished & of good character” and “settle & Determine”: Correspondence of Governor Sharpe, vol. 14, p. 106.
CHAPTER 7: SURVEYORS TO THE RESCUE
hired two horses: Cash Paid Out by Mason, Chew Family Papers, collection 2050, box 20, folder 20.
“landing and carriage”: Ibid.
“Danger from the Incursions of the Indians” and “if the Business . . . naturally low and wet”: Pennsylvania Commissioners to Thomas and Richard Penn, December 21, 1763, Chew Family Papers, collection 2050, box 25, folder 18.
“made accessible . . . as soon as possible,” “use their best . . . Penns or Calvert,” and “You are to enter fair minutes . . . which the lines may pass”: Minutes and papers of the Mason and Dixon survey, 1760–1768, vol. 1, December 5, 6, and 9, 1763.
“violent storm”: Mason expense account, December 17, 1763, Chew Family Papers, collection 2050, box 20, folder 20.
“entirely peaceable and . . . as the whites were”: Barber journal.
“inhumanly killed six of the Indians”: Pennsylvania Gazette, January 5, 1764, p. 2.
“Muskets, Tomahawks, & Scalping knives.” Edward Shippen to Joseph Shippen, January 5, 1764, Shippen Papers, file B Sh62.
“Gentleman: I hope . . . and an agreeable companion”: Richard Peters to Mason, January 7, 1764, Mason’s Journal, p. 38.
“put [it] with the rest of our Instruments into the wagons” and “carried on the Springs . . . of a single Horse chair [carriage]”: Mason’s Journal, January 11, 1764, p. 38.
“Finding we were very near . . . Erect the Observatory”: Ibid., January 16, 1764, p. 39.
“I’ve here the pleasure . . . Labourers will then be wanted” and “When I left Philadelphia . . . always be acknowledg’d”: Mason to Richard Peters, January 27, 1764, Chew Papers, collection 2050, box 26, folder 2.
“flying clouds”: Mason’s Journal, March 5, 1764, p. 45.
“The edge of the Sun’s Shadow . . . the best defined I ever saw”: Ibid., March 18, 1764, p. 45.
CHAPTER 8: TACKLING THE IMPOSSIBLE
“visto in the Meridian Southward”: Mason’s Journal, March 19, 1764, p. 45.
“Proved the Meridian and found it very exact” and “Found the chain a little too long. Corrected it”: Ibid., April 5, 1764, p. 47.
“five Laborers in carrying one of the instruments”: Ibid., April 18, 1764, p. 48.
reward for them in the Pennsylvania Gazette: Pennsylvania Gazette, June 16, 1763, p. 3.
“To prove that the Chain Carriers . . . Link of the same”: Mason’s Journal, August 27, 1764, p. 60.
“There is the greatest quantity . . . reach the clouds”: Ibid., September 13, 1764, p. 63.
“it was so near a right angle . . . true tangent Point” and “what we had done . . . stand as finished”: Ibid., November 13, 1764, p. 66.
CHAPTER 9: THE WEST LINE
“What brought me here . . . none alive to tell” and “Strange it was . . . no honor to them!”: Mason’s Journal, January 10, 1765, p. 66.
“one Mr. Crisep . . . with about 55” and “would not surrender . . . lost his life coming out”: Ibid., January 17, 1765, p. 67.
“Met some boys . . . as if all had been well”: Ibid., February 24, 1765, p. 67.
“the Stamp Act . . . First of November next”: Pennsylvania Gazette, June 20, 1765, p. 2.
“which the fatal and never-to-be-forgotten Stamp-Act”: South Carolina Gazetteer; and Country Journal, “City of New York,” December 17, 1765, p. 4.
“not to buy any goods . . . the Stamp Act shall be repealed”: Ibid.
“[As] I was returning . . . Cloud to the Horizon”: Mason’s Journal, May 27, 1765, p. 87.
“in the same manner . . . country is inhabited”: Ibid., June 18, 1765, p. 92.
“one inch and six tenths in Length . . . half an inch thick”: Ibid., August 8, 1765, p. 100.
“the Taking [of] frequent Observations . . . Line by many Miles”: Correspondence of Governor Sharpe, vol. 14, pp. 199–200.
“Immediately there opens a room . . . support nature’s arch),” “On the sidewalls . . . Monuments of a Temple,” “Striking its Visitants . . . numbered as one of them,” “a fine river of water,” and “other rooms, but not so large as the first”: Mason’s Journal, September 22, 1765, p. 111.
“by its appearance . . . direction of our Line”: Ibid., October 27, 1765, p. 117.
“and left them . . . at Captain Shelby’s”: Ibid., October 26, 1765, p. 115.
the team would need between fifty and sixty crown stones and about two hundred regular mile markers: Correspondence of Governor Sharpe, vol. 14, pp. 216–217.
CHAPTER 10: CONTINUING WEST
“on the whole . . . Cash to proceed with”: Correspondence of Governor Sharpe, vol. 14, p. 298.
“oak and hickory buds just breaking into Leaf”: Mason’s Journal, March 11, 1766, p. 121.
“Boundary between the Natives . . . his Britanic Majesties Collonies,” “the best . . . of North America,” “The Rivers abound . . . quantity almost increditable,” and “From the solitary tops . . . spirit that made them”: Ibid., June 14, 1766, p. 129.
forty-one wagonloads of oats and Indian corn: Pennsylvania Gazette, May 22, 1755, p. 4.
“Our numbers consisted . . . prey to the Enemy”: Washington to Robert Dinwiddie, July 18, 1755, George Washington Papers, Letter book 1.
“dismal inhospitable Place”: Pennsylvania Archives, series 1, vol. 2, 1755, p. 309.
“made through the desert . . . never to return” and “beautifully situated on a rising ground”: Mason’s Journal, June 22, 1766, p. 129.
“measured three leaves . . . 12 inches in breadth”: Ibid., July 6, 1766, p. 130.
“proceed immediately . . . in the [West] Line”: Ibid., October 29, 1766, p. 147.
CHAPTER 11: DANGEROUS TERRITORY
“the limbs of the Trees . . . clear Ice upon them”: Mason’s Journal, January 27, 1767, p. 155.
“all the Chief Sackems and principal Warriors of the Six Nations”: William Johnson Papers, vol. 5, p. 486.
“from their desire . . . for their attendance”: Ibid., vol. 12, pp. 309–310.
“to make the [Indians] a small present . . . for their trouble” and “to use his utmost . . . to return home”: Minutes of the Boundary Commission, June 22, 1767.
“As the public Peace . . . other persons whatsoever”: commissioners to Mason and Dixon, June 18, 1767, Mason’s Journal, p. 177.
“the tallest man I ever saw”: Memoranda, 1767, Mason’s Journal, p. 174.
“we are all . . . and friendly Manner” and “left us . . . required them at Home”: Mason and Dixon to Benjamin Chew, August 25, 1767, Chew Family Papers, collection 2050, box 26, folder 3.
“through which you may travel . . . not find one Hill”: Memoranda, 1767, Mason’s Journal, p. 176.
“WANTED, Able bodied Negroe . . . and a garden, rent free”: Pennsylvania Gazette, various issues, March 22, 1764, to December 24, 1767.
“found plenty of fish . . . particularly cat fish”: Memoranda, 1767, Mason’s Journal, p. 174.
“Chief of the Delaware Nation”: Ibid.
“with Blankets and . . . Bows and Arrows”: Ibid., p. 175.
“This day the Chief . . . one step farther Westward”: Mason’s Journal, October 9, 1767, p. 187.
“Suppressed part of what he might have informed you”: William Johnson Papers, vol. 6, pp. 71–73.
“had a great mind . . . his own Country”: Memoranda, 1767, Mason’s Journal, p. 175.
“On the top of . . . five feet High”: Mason’s Journal, October 18, 1767, p. 190.
“a silk handkerchief sent to his widow”: Joseph Shippen Accounts, Chew Family Papers, collection 2050, box 20, folder 3.
“decently buried”: William Johnson Papers, vol. 6, p. 6.
“acted very prudently in refusing to give the extravagant Price”: Chew to Mason and Dixon, November 6, 1767, Chew Family Papers, collection 2050 box 25, folder 11.
“In all the Mountains . . . superior to those sent from England” and “The Marks we have erected . . . to destroy them”: Mason to Hugh Hamersley, January 29, 1768, Calvert Papers 174, microfilm reel 26, no. 1311.
venison, corn pudding, and turnips: Mason and Dixon’s expense account, February 1767 to December 24, 1767, Chew Family Papers, collection 2050, box 20, folder 20.
“to put an end to this tedious Business”: Mason’s Journal, p. 192.
“no further occasion . . . Honorable Proprietors”: Ibid., December 26, 1767, p. 194.
“But the Earth is not . . . this as accurate”: Ibid., January 8, 1768, p. 194.
“Keep the rods . . . to your Labourers”: Ibid., p. 136.
“Thus ends my restless progress in America”: Ibid., September 11, 1768, p. 211.
CHAPTER 12: FREEDOM’S BOUNDARY
“I wish they would compromise . . . our [Virginia] assembly”: Thomas Jefferson to Edmund Pendleton, August, 26, 1776.
“The storm then took . . . Mason and Dixon did”: Freeman’s Journal, July 7, 1784.
“What Sir, patronize our . . . employ John Bull”: Connecticut Courant, vol. 69, no. 3570, p. 1.
“in obedience to . . . Abolition of Slavery’ ”: Pennsylvania Archives, Cumberland County, Clerk of Court-Slave Returns Inventory.
Between 1780 and 1782, 6,855 slaves lived in Pennsylvania; in 1810, that number had been reduced to 795: Nash and Soderlund, p. 5.
only 10 percent of Maryland’s slaveholders owned eight or more slaves: Slaughter, p. 6.
In 1849, more free blacks . . . in any other state: Historical Census Browser, University of Virginia Library, http://mapserver.lib.virginia.edu/php/state.php.
Between June 1849 and June 1850, 279 slaves escaped from Maryland: Slaughter, p. 17.
“obey and execute all warrants . . . issued under the provisions of this act” and “In no trial . . . which he escaped”: Fugitive Slave Act, amended as part of the Compromise of 1850.
“You have my property,” “Go in the room . . . them are yours,” and “They are not mine . . . bound to have them”: Parker, pp. 283–284.
“set the house on fire, and burn them up”: Ibid., p. 284.
a reasonable estimate is about twenty-five: Member of the Philadelphia Bar, p. 37.
“I have stood . . . blessings of freedom”: “Frederick Douglass’ Address.” The North Star, vol. 1., no. 32, p. 2.
“If it be right . . . of all man’s rights”: Frederick Douglass’ Paper, September 25, 1851.
“I shook hands . . . Liberty at Christiana” and “this affair . . . fugitive slave bill”: Douglass, p. 350.
“of previous conspiracy . . . of the United States” and “had any other intention . . . they termed kidnappers”: Member of the Philadelphia Bar, p. 80.
“When I found . . . I was in Heaven”: Bradford, p. 19. Words spelled phonetically by Bradford to reflect dialect have been corrected for clarity.
CHAPTER 13: TIME’S BOUNDARY
“Professor Black contacted . . . no longer there”: Telephone call with the author, July 22, 2011.
“To begin the research . . . deteriorate any further”: E-mail correspondence with the author, July 27, 2011.
“Reading eighteenth-century handwriting . . . to get used to it”: Telephone conversation with the author, July 22, 2011.
“The longer I looked . . . it became to understand”: E-mail correspondence with the author, July 27, 2011.
“When I realized . . . until much later on”: E-mail correspondence with the author, July 27, 2011.
“It was all worth it . . . describe how I felt”: Telephone conversation with the author, July 22, 2011.
“This has been a truly . . . make a difference”: E-mail correspondence with the author, July 27, 2011.
“I recall one . . . stone was a bonus,” “The point of the trip . . . stone in the ground,” and “We created descriptions . . . of history”: E-mail correspondence with the author, August 24, 2012.
“The stones that mark . . . nine hundred feet,” “I attribute this . . . no way to correct,” and “If the zenith sector’s . . . taken on the zenith sector”: E-mail correspondence with author, August 27, 2012.
EPILOGUE
“for and towards the maintenance . . . Mary and Elizabeth”: Jeremiah Dixon’s will.
“I believe the Worst Road . . . by Man or Beast”: Jackson and Twohig, vol. 1, p. 12.