The Mason-Dixon Line
The Maryland boundaries in the land granted to George Calvert in 1632 overlapped those listed in the Pennsylvania land grants to William Penn in 1681 and 1682. For 80 years the two colonies debated their boundaries. Finally the Calvert and Penn families took their dispute to the British court and in 1750 England's chief justice declared that the boundary between southern Pennsylvania and Northern Maryland should lie 15 miles south of Philadelphia.
Ten years passed before the families agreed on this compromise. In July 1763 the Penns and Sixth Lord Baltimore engaged two young English surveyors, Charles Mason, an astronomer who had worked at the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, and Jeremiah Dixon, a surveyor from Durham County, England, to lay the line.
Optimistically, their contract called for them to complete their work in one month. In actuality, their work continued for almost five years.
Mason and Dixon relied on the Iroquois Indians, through whose land the line passed, to complete their work. The Indians worked as guides, hunters, guards, and ax men to clear a visual path.
I enjoy imagining how an astronomer explains charting a parallel which disregards natural obstructions, which was dictated by a court thousands of miles distant, which settles a land dispute (They'll tell you the cliche that all Native Americans were incapable of fathoming land ownership.), and which carves up their land with utter certainty and disregard for their claims.
What spawned this interest? (buy)Where might it lead? (buy)
posted by Biggie at 3:12 PM
Now that I work at the Law School this stuff is interesting..."Mr. Bailey complains that his rap is trash
so he's seeking compensation in the form of cash.
Bailey thinks he's entitled to some monetary gain
because Eminem used his name in vain.
The lyrics are stories no one would take as fact
they're an exaggeration of a childish act."
In closing, she stated, "It is therefore this court's ultimate position, that Eminem is entitled to summary disposition."
posted by Matt at 2:35 PM 
