Transcripts

Mark Stein:
Notably the Southwest corner of Massachusetts used to be a point and now it looks like it's been snipped off and given to New York. That's because there was a town there and the only road to the town was through New York or Connecticut.

Mark Stein, author of the book How the States Got Their Shapes…

So in Massachusetts, authorities had a difficult time getting to that town and it attracted a lot of bad guys and so in the 1850's they agreed to let New York have that town and clean out the vice.

Originally Vermont was part of New York.

Comes the Revolution, Vermont says, "We want to be our own colony." Continental Congress says, "Sorry you're part of New York." Vermont says, "Then we'll fight with the British." And only George Washington's intervention stopped it when he said, "Our troops will not fight against people from Vermont." And then Congress said, begrudgingly "You can be your own entity too."

Congress created Mid-western and western states to be roughly equal except California and Texas.

The fact is that Congress did not create California or Texas - they created themselves. In the case of California, we acquired that line with the Mexican War in 1848 and within one year so many people flocked to California that before Congress could create a territorial government, California created its own territorial government and sent a proposal to Congress with boundaries, skipping the whole territorial process - it wanted to go right to statehood.

At somethingyoushouldknow.net I'm Mike Carruthers and that's Something You Should Know.