Original map establishing Mason-Dixon line dividing, north and south US sells for over $1 million

In a sale straight out of history, the original map credited with defining the division between what would later be the Union States and the Confederacy is up for auction, managed by Brunk Auctions in Asheville, N.C.

Ahead of the auction, the map was estimated to be sold for as much as $800,000 to $1.2 million for its anonymous seller.

According to the auction house, the final sale price was $1.18 million.

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“The Mason-Dixon Line that most Americans know is this dividing line between the northern free states and the southern slaveholding states,” Lauren Brunk, vice president of Brunk Auctions told the Associated Press. “But the line was not drawn for that reason.”

Brunk Auctions put the “exceptional and historic piece of American cartography” up for bid Thursday.

“It’s not that often that you can really get this close to something that is so historically important,” Brunk said. “And it was awe-inspiring, really.”

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The auction was livestreamed online with bid registrations still open.

According to the auction house, the original Mason-Dixon map, drafted by Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon between 1767 and 1768, was the hand-drawn visual for “the symbolic boundary between Northern and Southern states.”

The map was originally owned by Benjamin Chew, who served as the Chief Justice of Pennsylvania, before being purchased and owned by Malcolm Forbes, the publisher of Forbes Magazine.

Forbes took ownership of the map in 1982, outbidding the Library of Congress and purchasing it for $260,000, according to Brunk.

Following Forbes’ death in 1990, the map didn’t have a new owner until 2002, when it was sold at a private auction.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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