{"product_id":"mason-dixon-edward-g-gray-9780674301535","title":"Mason-Dixon: Crucible of the Nation","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"Deeply researched and highly readable.\" --Eric Foner, \u003ci\u003eTimes Literary Supplement\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"A rich history of regional distinctions, especially as they shaped the antebellum Republic.\" --\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"A fitting testament to a career marked by boundary-crossing curiosity and stalwart service to the historical profession...[a] splendid new history.\" --Richard Bell, \u003ci\u003eRegister of the Kentucky Historical Society\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Fascinating...does justice to the full sweep and complexity of American history by expertly tracing a century of change across one especially revealing patch of ground.\" --James H. Read, \u003ci\u003eAmerican Political Thought\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Erudite, gripping, and highly significant. Gray puts his talents as a historian of the American Revolution and the early republic to excellent use, persuasively arguing that the Mason-Dixon Line is worth seeing as a geopolitical border.\" --Kathleen DuVal, author of \u003ci\u003eIndependence Lost\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAcclaimed scholar Edward Gray offers the first comprehensive history of the Mason-Dixon Line, a border at the center of early American political contestation. Formalized in 1767 to fully and finally demarcate Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Delaware, the Line resolved a longstanding jurisdictional conflict that had provoked bloodshed among colonists and ensnared Lenape and Susquehannock populations. In 1780, Pennsylvania's Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery inaugurated a new phase, as the Line became a boundary between free and slave states and their distinct legal regimes. Then, with the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act in 1850, the Line became a federal instrument to arrest freedom-seeking Blacks. Only with the end of the Civil War did the Line's significance fade, though it haunted the geography of Jim Crow. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eMason-Dixon\u003c\/i\u003e tells the gripping story of colonial grandees, Native American diplomats, Quaker abolitionists, fugitives from slavery, capitalist railroad and canal builders, US presidents, Supreme Court justices, and Underground Railroad conductors--all contending with the relentless violence and political discord of a borderland that transformed American history.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Edward G. Gray\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0674301536\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780674301535\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Harvard University Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 10\/07\/2025\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 456\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback","brand":"Edward G. Gray","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":47001056116991,"sku":"9780674301535","price":26.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_76c3aa00-0956-40bd-b09b-6602c1d651fa.jpg?v=1751599934","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/mason-dixon-edward-g-gray-9780674301535","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}