User:Jengod/Sabine Free State

http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/nbn02

NEUTRAL GROUND. After the Louisiana Purchase, the United States and Spain were unable to agree on the boundary between Louisiana and Texas. In order to avert an armed clash, Gen. James Wilkinson and Lt. Col. Simón de Herrera,qqv the American and Spanish military commanders respectively, on November 5, 1806, entered into an agreement declaring the disputed territory Neutral Ground. The boundaries of the Neutral Ground were never officially described beyond a general statement that the Arroyo Hondo on the east and the Sabine River on the west were to serve as boundaries. It may be safely assumed, however, that the Gulf of Mexico constituted the Southern boundary and the thirty-second parallel of latitude formed the northern boundary. Although it had been stipulated in the agreement that no settlers would be permitted in the Neutral Ground, settlers from both Spanish and American territory moved in. The two governments were compelled to send joint military expeditions in 1810 and 1812 to expel outlaws who were making travel and trade in the neutral strip dangerous and unprofitable. Ownership of the strip went to United States by the Adams-Onís Treatyqv in 1821.

Natchitoches and the Sabine River, which had been a disputed area between the French and Spanish. The border question was raised again with the U.S. purchase of Louisiana. In 1806, American forces established themselves east of Arroyo Hondo (a small stream just west of Natchitoches), with Spain forces on the west bank of the Sabine River. This created a "neutral strip," which became a haven for outlaws, bandits, fugitive slaves, and filibusters gathering for the invasion of Texas. In 1821 a series of treaties resulted in the boundary between the two countries being fixed at the Sabine River. Soon the U.S. government established several new forts on the Louisiana frontier.

Events leading to the territorial dispute resulting in the "neutral ground" agreement really began with the French establishment of its westernmost settlement and fort in Louisiana at Natchitoches and the eastern boundary of El Camino Real (San Antonio Trace) at Los Adaes, just east of present day Robeline. In 1803, the United States bought Louisiana from France. This vast territory known as the Louisiana Purchase, included all the land drained by the Mississippi River. When the Americans asked the French about the western boundary of this land, the French were very vague. A definite boundary of Louisiana had not been determined. The Spaniards in Texas considered it to be the Red River. The Americans claimed it to be the Sabine River. Finally, a neutral strip was created in 1806 when no decision could be made. General James Wilkinson, representing the United States, met with the Spanish commander at Los Adaes, the first settlement in the Neutral Strip, to make this agreement.

From 1806-1820, this area was often referred to as "The Neutral Strip" or "No Man's Land". During this time, this strip of land between the Sabine River on the west and the Arroyo Hondo and the Calcasieu River on the east, soon attracted people of all kinds. Outlaws often came to take advantage of a land without law enforcement. In 1810, a joint expedition of Spanish and Americans drove them out. Lawlessness continued until 1822, when Colonel Zachary Taylor built Fort Jesup and brought order to the lawless region. The Florida Treaty of 1819 fixed the western boundary of the Territory of Orleans, among others, but not until 1826 did the so-called "Free State of Sabine" really become part of Louisiana.

http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/la/sabine/deeds/nspio.txt

http://www.tshaonline.org/publications/journals/shq/online/v006/n2/issue_view.html

The western border of Orleans Territory with Spanish Texas was still undefined in 1805. A definitive international border would have to wait for the Adams-Onis Treaty of 1821. In the meantime Spain, which had its own troubles in Europe with Napoleon, delayed a decision with Neutral Ground diplomacy. The Neutral Ground between Louisiana and Spanish Texas included portions of the present-day parishes of Desoto, Sabine, Natchitoches, Vernon, Rapides, Beauregard, Allen, Calcasieu, Jefferson Davis, and Cameron.

The Redbones of Louisiana originated from the mixed-race Red Bone people of South Carolina, arriving in Louisiana in the late 18th century. They gravitated to the area of Louisiana called the “Neutral Strip”, a 5000 square mile expanse of land between the Calcasieau and Sabine rivers claimed by both Spain and the United States, but administered by neither. Both Spain and the United States agreed that the strip would be off-limits. Despite this, the United States sent troops into the Neutral Strip on several occasions, as pirates made their bases there (including John Murel and Jean Lafitte). But the Neutral Strip was a wilderness of swamps and canebrakes, and many who went in uninvited never came out again. The flight of runaway slaves to the safety of the Neutral Strip was such that infamous “land pirate” John Murel planned to organize a slave revolt, based on a fugitive army that would have placed him at the head of an autonomous fugitive republic encompassing much of southern Louisiana. Even after the border dispute was settled in 1819, the former Neutral Strip remained a place that the authority of the state was reluctant to invade.