Talk:Neutral Ground (Louisiana)

Title an improper anachronism?
Why is this article titled "Sabine Free State"? The sources used seem to agree in calling it the Neutral Ground or the Neutral Territory. I did see one mention of "the Free State of Sabine" as an alternate term, but that was in an unsigned chronology of Louisiana and not a scholarly work like the others. Either way, the preferred term is clearly Neutral Ground or Neutral Territory.

I did a web search on Google Books and professional use of "Sabine Free State" is paltry, and one book (Henry Chambers' Mississippi Valley Beginnings) clearly indicates that the term, and even the concept, is an anachronism created generations later by local patriotism. Chambers writes: "Upon the establishment of this neutral zone is based the boast of a western parish (county) of the present State of Louisiana that they are citizens of the 'Free State of Sabine'." (pg. 347). Apparently that's Sabine Parish, which holds a yearly Sabine Free State Festival nowadays. However the neutral ground was not free; it was claimed by both Spain and the US, the local military commanders simply agreeing not to establish troops there. They still occasionally sent out joint expeditions to police it.

This article really needs to be put in conformance with scholarly consensus and be titled Neutral Ground, Neutral Territory, or any term that is actually customarily used by historians rather than conceit generated by local pride. 69.228.104.168 (talk) 18:43, 1 July 2009 (UTC)
 * I quite agree. Done. -LlywelynII (talk) 06:57, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

Squatters, Spanish Land Grants and Legitimacy
While this article only states what is commonly held about the settlers to the region during the time, a review of the claims to homesteads from the period, as published by the US Government in 1825, reveals a different picture of the legitimacy of the settlement of the homesteaders. With that in mind, I'm going to update the references to Spanish land grants and "squatters" in the next week or two unless someone objects. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.2.52.23 (talk) 21:32, 9 April 2015 (UTC)

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Flags, flags, flags
This article is concerning a contested piece of ground. The flags on the right seem rather large and colorfully distracting. As soon as the page came up I was looking at flags, all the way down the page, then had to "pry away" to read the article. Galleries are less than the normal but it seems to me this might be an improvement. Possibly smaller flags but that would still dominate the article. Otr500 (talk) 22:09, 26 November 2017 (UTC)


 * I don't think the flags are too essential. I cut them down to standard thumbnail size and gave them more meaningful captions. AnonMoos (talk) 05:25, 28 November 2017 (UTC)


 * I've gone ahead and removed them entirely. I don't see any encyclopedic value in a gallery of all the flags that ever flew over a territory. And that's all the more true in the case of a territory like this, where you could just as easily argue that NONE of those flags ever really flew over it, it being "outside the jurisdiction of either country" and all... -Elmer Clark (talk) 23:53, 16 August 2021 (UTC)

External links modified (February 2018)
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