Louisiana's Lawless Territory: The Neutral Strip Explained

In the history of the U.S.'s expansion, Louisiana's Neutral Strip—the result of European and American tensions in early North America—stands out as an interesting side-note. Thanks for watching.

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[jwsanders]

Our family owned a ranch just north of Logansport, La and our western fence line was the Texas -Louisiana boundary . There was, and still is a marble pillar about 6 feet tall marking the boundary with inscriptions on the East and West sides The East side reads United States boundary 1842 AD . The west side reads Republic of Texas . We always just used it for a fence post until some archaeologists found out about it, and my Dad donated it and a couple of acres for a roadside park

[thGenerationCajun]

South West Louisiana "Acadiana" was promised to the Cajuns by King Phillip of Spain, My ancestors were brought here to be a buffer between Indians of eastern Texas and the rest of Louisiana. Most Acadians"Cajuns today" were half Mi'kmaq Indian from Nova Scotia. My great grandparents were both half Indian in 1785.

[briancain]

I lived in the "no man's land" in a town called Robeline, Louisiana.. I was told it comes from Robbers Lane, as it was an outlaws hideout

[stevenhall]

My first French ancestor was Jean Baptist Brevel who was a reinforcement soldier for the Post de Natchitoches in 1725 for the Caddos against the Natchez war. He married a Caddo named Marie Ann Descadeau (her Christian name). The area is rich in history. The Lafitte pirates used the Calcasieu river and had a base near Lake Charles where my cousin still finds artifacts working in their back yard. That lawless area was a hotbed of Union sympathy during the Civil War, so much so the confederates had to build a road very far east of the Sabine River to move supplies because between Union gunboats and a hostile population they could not get thru.

[shanejones]

I live in West Louisiana and only found out about this portion of my region's history about 10 years ago when I stumbled across an article about it during the celebration of Louisiana's 200 years of statehood. I've always loved history but had a very limited understanding of my region's history until that point. Since then I've researched everything about our local history and find it extremely compelling and fascinating. For those who have never visited West Louisiana, for the most part, we have more in common with the culture of East Texas than the south Eastern French area of Louisiana. It's a very awesome place to live if you're connected to nature and the outdoors.

[Lemurai]

I’m sad that the original culture of Louisiana is being rapidly depleted, all the “old ones” who still spoke Creole or Cajun French and maintained family traditions are either long dead or in their late 90’s. I’m thankful I was able to learn creole from my grandparents, by proxy mainly because the old folks used to like to speak French around people when they were trying to be messy 😂, but thankfully my young mind was malleable enough to catch on back then, in later years I taught myself how to write it as well, to teach my kids and extended family. I didn’t really see the impact of my efforts until my young niece’s & nephew’s began picking it up after a few years and are now fluent young adults. It was certainly a blessing, to be able to preserve my heritage & identity something people in Louisiana need to desperately do. The influx of outsiders from northern & midwestern states “Merikan” did us no favors during the oil/industrial boom, my grand parents told me stories of how these people went out of their way to make the native locals feel ashamed of their culture and language by calling them backwards for adhering to their own culture, family values, speaking their own language & sticking to their religion. If you have Creole or Cajun roots or both, you need to put the pedal to the metal and conserve as much of your family history as you can, the ship is sinking fast. There used to be a joke going around a long time ago about us all being related, I think there some truth to it😂😂😂

[frankygmanentertainment]

I would love a video on Jean leffite sometime ! He's a pirate from louisiana and was pretty instrumental in history.

[GraceInnovations]

Very cool! I live around there, love learning about Louisiana history and culture!

[leo-windrider]

You make great videos! Although some of your content could also be found on Wikipedia, a foreigner like me would never have known or searched for content like the Neutral Strip. These videos have really enhanced my knowledge on Geography in the United States. Excellent as always!

[johnnymanning]

I love being from Natchitoches, LA, it’s deep history and beautiful country.

[maryparsons]

I am from south Louisiana. This is a beautiful state. We have so many different peoples. French, , Creole Spanish and Indian. We have so many natural resources. I have always loved living here.

[frankygmanentertainment]

I'm barely north of the neutral strip, here in shreveport bossier area, never heard about this even in my "louisiana lagniappe" class

[robertortiz-wilson]

I'm very glad to have found someone covering this!

[waynesmith]

Very good video. The eastern map boundary on your map ends at the Ouiska Chitto river, yet you mention the eastern boundary as the Calcasieu!

[carywest]

My ancestor Reverend Joseph Willis led a wagon train into Neutral Ground in about 1802-03. Settled around modern day intersection of Allen, Rapides and Vernon Parishes.Those people called themselves ten milers, after a creek named10 mile creek which flows to Calcashieu River.

[OpinionesDeJACCsOpinions]

I kinda had heard of that before, but was unaware really, about it.

[brycefrg]

Epic video, you do a good job making something interesting out of a topic I’ve never heard of, good job man!

[Jsmith]

Never had any idea about this. Very interesting!

[caneyebus]

Props on pronouncing Calcasieu correctly! It can be a pain in the rear.

[Dis_Sal]

I saw a few of your videos before but I didn't realize how small your channel was until now, great videos, and if i may ask for a video id love to see a video similar to the one you did on Morroco for Kashmir or Kurdistan, I love the videos so far keep it up!