When Maine was Massachusetts

It’s been too long since high school social studies class (remember those?). Nice article:

“March 15, 1820 - Massachusetts Loses Maine” - < link > “Although it started as a separate colony in the 1620s, from the 1650s until 1820 Maine was a part of Massachusetts. ”

On this day in 1820, Massachusetts lost over 30,000 square miles of land as its former province of Maine gained statehood. Mainers had begun campaigning for statehood in the years following the Revolution. The Massachusetts legislature finally consented in 1819. What no one in either Massachusetts or Maine foresaw, however, was that Maine's quest for statehood would become entangled in the most divisive issue in American history — slavery. Most Mainers supported abolition. They were dismayed that their admission to the Union was linked to the admission of Missouri as a slave state. This controversial "Missouri Compromise" preserved — for a few more decades — the delicate balance between pro- and anti-slavery forces in the U.S. Congress. …