Northern Colleges (Location Key)

In The Town Gavin Stevens tries to convince Linda Snopes to leave Mississippi to attend college in Virginia or at one of "the smart 'finishing' schools north of Mason's and Dixon's" (221). The Mason-Dixon line, named for the two surveyors who drew it in the 1760s, is often used to represent the boundary between The North and The South as two distinct parts of the U.S. As examples of the northern schools he has in mind, Gavin lists "Bennington and Bard and Swarthmore" (224). Bennington in Vermont was an all-female college until after the novel was published. The other schools, however, don't seem to fit Gavin's "finishing-school" designation. Bard College, in New York state, was all-male until 1944. Swarthmore, in Pennsylvania, has been co-educational since its founding in the 1860s.