Sabine Free State
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Sabine Free State, also known as the Neutral Strip, Neutral Territory, Neutral Ground or No Man's Land of Louisiana, was a strip of land between America's Louisiana Purchase and Spanish Texas. The result of ambiguous borderline, it lasted from 1806 until 1819.
Specifically, the United States claimed that the border of its Purchase was at the Sabine River, while Spain claimed a line further east, along a tributary of the Red River called Arroyo Hondo.
A treaty signed in 1806 laid out the demilitarized Sabine Free State. Even though the U.S. officially had no claim, American settlers moved in and took Spanish land grants known as the Rio Hondo claims. The Neutral Ground's domain was from the Sabine River east to the Calcasieu River and Arroyo Hondo on the west, Bayou Kisatchie, Bayou Don Manuel and Lac Terre Noir.
The 1819 Adams-Onís Treaty set the border at the Sabine River following Spain's surrender of any claim to the area.
This part of central and southwestern Louisiana was settled in part by a mixed-race people known as Redbones, whose origins are the subject of ongoing debate.
