Mason and Dixon’s line

A line run by two surveyors, Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, in 1761–2, between Pennsylvania and Maryland. The term came to be used as signifying the northern limit of the slave states.

1824.  This bill is an attempt to reduce the country south of Mason and Dixon’s line to a state of worse than colonial bondage.—John Randolph in Congress, April 15.

1830.  [If Mr. Dane’s] sphere had happened to range south of Mason and Dixon’s line, he might probably have come within the scope of Mr. Foot’s vision.—Speech by Daniel Webster: Mass. Spy, March 3.

1833.  Of the eatables composed of bread-stuffs, served in various shapes, no one who has had the misfortune to be raised north of Mason and Dixon’s line, can form an adequate conception.—James Hall, ‘The Harpe’s Head,’ pp. 214–5 (Phila.).

1835.  I advise every traveller, who comes from the northern side of Mason & Dixon’s line, to eat fried chickens, whenever he meets with them in Virginia.—P. H. Nicklin, ‘Letters on the Virginia Springs,’ p. 17 (Phila.).

1840.  Do they know that there is a certain line called “Mason and Dixon’s line”? Do they know that it extends from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean?—Mr. Bynum of N. Carolina, House of Repr., Jan. 25: Cong. Globe, p. 263.

1842.  [Mr. Granger of N.Y.] comes from a region too far north of Mason and Dixon’s line to permit him to know or appreciate the people of Georgia.—Mr. Black of Ga., the same, May 24: id., p. 421, App.

1846.  Thousands of negroes and abolitionists dancing hornpipes upon Mason and Dixon’s line.—Mr. Tibbatts of Kentucky, the same, March 17: id., p. 560, App.

1848.