Map of Alabama in 1848

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Here it is: Why does the Alabama state line not include the Florida Panhandle to Pensacola or Destin?

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Staring at a map, one has to wonder why Alabama's border makes that strange jag across the top of the Florida Panhandle instead of continuing down to the Gulf. The answer, once you've cut through the oddly complicated bit of history surrounding the creation of the state, is a simple one: Alabama lost out on its rightful share of Florida's Panhandle because our founding fathers decided to take something that didn't belong to them.



The Louisiana Purchase plays a prominent role in this tale, as do our third, fourth, and fifth presidents – Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe, respectively – and Napoleon Bonaparte. This will take a bit of explaining, for back in the Revolutionary War era, ownership of parts of Alabama passed through a lot of hands, including French, Spanish, British and American. The top of the state was traded and fought over separately from the bottom of the state, and often, the pieces of what we now think of as Alabama were owned by different countries, and even other states.



In his book from 1918, "The West Florida Controversy, 1798-1813; a study in American diplomacy," Isaac Joslin Cox contends that the 90-year fight over control of the Alabama Gulf Coast and the Panhandle played an outsized role in international relations. The name "West Florida" comes from the brief period when the British ruled Florida, after snatching it away from Spain. At the time, West Florida actually included most of Alabama. But more on that in a minute. First, a word from Cox on the importance of this small piece of land.



"The significant part of West Florida was, therefore, merely a strip of the Gulf coast possessing little intrinsic value, but rendered temporarily important through international rivalry. It had even greater claims to distinction," Cox writes. "Its creation, development, occupancy, and division determined the destiny of the whole region of which it was a part. It afforded at once an epitome and a prophecy of territorial expansion in the Southwest."

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Ben Raines | braines@al.com

West Florida

The tale of how we got cheated out of the Panhandle actually begins long before the birth of the United States, in the early 1700s. At the time, the French controlled the territory then known as la Louisiane Francaise, which included all of present day Mississippi and Alabama, and much of the Midwest. Meanwhile, the Spanish controlled La Florida. The two colonial superpowers spent years squabbling over ownership of Mobile Bay, which served as de facto border between their colonies.



Then, in 1719, the French commander of New Orleans and the Spanish commander in Pensacola reached an accord, setting an informal boundary between the colonies along the Perdido River, which is located about halfway between Pensacola Bay and Mobile Bay. Remember this accord, as it will come up again later. (Incidentally, the Perdido river actually forms the modern border between Florida and Alabama today, but it wouldn't if it weren't for the shenanigans of the afore mentioned founding fathers.)



Things were pretty well settled for the next 50 years or so, with France owning the Louisiana territory and Spain owning Florida, right up until the French and Indian War in the 1760s. In the treaty to end the war, France lost all of its American holdings, which were split between the British and the Spanish. Ultimately, the Spanish took control of the Louisiana territory land west of the Mississippi, while, the British took control of Florida, and all the Louisiana territory land east of the Mississippi River, notably the area that we know as Mississippi and Alabama. Documents from the time describe this land as "the left side" of the river.

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British holdings before the war

The treaty that ended the French and Indian War states the French gave "His Britannic Majesty, the river and port of Mobile and everything which he possesses or ought to possess on the left side of the river Mississippi, except the town of new Orleans and the island in which it is situated."



The British then set about creating new colonies from these pieces of war booty. They split Florida in two, creating East Florida and West Florida. And they took much of what is now modern-day Alabama and attached it to West Florida. West Florida ultimately stretched from around Birmingham to the Apalachicola River.



Then came the Revolutionary War, which, of course, the British lost. In addition to losing the 13 colonies, Britain also lost control of West Florida to Spain, whose soldiers attacked from Louisiana. Spain regained control of Florida in 1783. The location of the border between Spanish West Florida and the surrounding U.S. territory quickly became a point of contention between the two countries.

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Ben Raines | braines@al.com

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Ben Raines | braines@al.com

Meanwhile, Napoleon worked out a secret deal with Spain that saw Louisiana returned to the French in 1802, but only the portion west of the Mississippi River. Even as Spain and France were finalizing that transfer, the wheels were in motion for the Louisiana Purchase, which would be completed within a year. It is interesting to note that the shifting ownership of these huge pieces of what would become America were part of larger calculations among the colonial superpowers of Spain, France and Britain.



For instance, Napoleon, who was busily conquering Europe in 1803, needed some cash to finance his military march and prepare for war with Britain. Hence the sale of France's newly reacquired portion of the Louisiana territory. Initially, President Jefferson authorized the U.S. ambassador to spend as much as $10 million to purchase just New Orleans from the French, to ensure that U.S. exports from states bordering the Mississippi River had access to a port. Napoleon's offer of the entire Louisiana Purchase for just $15 million was a wholly unexpected bargain, but one which the U.S. jumped on. Part of Napoleon's calculation in offering to sell his nation's entire North American holdings at fire sale prices was that doubling the size of the United States would hobble both Britain and Spain. Both countries would then share contentious boundaries with the U.S. along the edges of the Louisiana Purchase land.

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Louisiana Purchase Treaty

The most contentious of those boundary disputes was the one with Spain's West Florida. Spain had long claimed ownership of all the land east of the Mississippi River as part of West Florida, just as the British did when they ruled West Florida. Those borders had been in place for nearly 40 years. And when Spain gave Louisiana back to the French, the deal specifically excluded any land east of the Mississippi.



For Thomas Jefferson and his advisors, including future presidents James Madison and James Monroe, this was an untenable situation, as it would be impossible to defend the vital port of New Orleans with the Spanish sitting in forts just across the river.



So Jefferson and his gang of future presidents hatched a plan -- a plan that involved that old, informal dividing line created in 1719 by the French and Spanish commanders to end the squabble over Mobile Bay.





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Map of the south circa 1806

The year after the Louisiana Purchase had been completed, the U.S. simply announced that West Florida up to that old Perdido River dividing line had been included in the Louisiana Purchase. This was patently absurd. The map above, created in 1806, clearly shows Spanish West Florida extending all the way to the Mississippi. Nevertheless, an act of congress called the Mobile Act was passed in 1804 to that effect, formally stating that all the Spanish land up to the Perdido River belonged to the United States.



Naturally Spain objected. Spain had ruled Louisiana for 40 years prior to returning it to the French. In all of that time, the border of the territory had been the Mississippi River. The border had been fixed there since the British took control of Mississippi and Alabama after the French and Indian War. The U.S. was claiming land that had never been France's to sell. Napoleon even played a minor role in this dispute, refusing to back the American. Instead, ever the opportunist, he sided with the Spanish, this time to hamper America's growth.



The dispute over West Florida simmered for about a decade, until the United States sent troops in to occupy the area up to the Perdido River. That was in 1810. Though Spain still objected to the land grab, Alabama became a state in 1819, including the portion of West Florida stolen from Spain.



After that, Spain sort of lost interest in Florida. Just two years later, in 1821, Spain surrendered the rest of Florida to the U.S. But the die was cast. Alabama's borders were already fixed in place. What was left of West Florida was lumped together with East Florida and Florida entered the union as a state in 1845.

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My grandparent's motel in Panama City

In his excellent book, The Rise and Decline of the Redneck Riviera, Harvey Jackson details the final change to the borders of Alabama and Florida, a change that came in the late 1950s. Part of using the Perdido River as the dividing line between states meant that Perdido Pass, the spot where the river and its bay drained into the Gulf, had always been considered the border. That changed when Alabama and Florida agreed to build the first bridge over the pass. Initially, it was to be a joint project, with both states paying half. But an engineering study showed that Perdido Pass had moved three miles to the west since Florida became a state, meaning that Florida had essentially gained three miles of Alabama's coastline.



The case went to court, and ultimately Alabama won back its three miles of beach and the state line was relocated three miles east. But that meant the bridge over the pass would be entirely Alabama's to pay for. So, basically for the price of a bridge, Alabama expanded its coastal territory for the first time since 1819 and claimed a tiny portion of Florida's panhandle.



Ironically, if Alabama had waited just two more years before becoming a state, it is likely that all of West Florida would have been added to Alabama, and the state's share of the Gulf coastline would extend all the way to Apalachicola.



Put another way, if it weren't for the chicanery of greedy politicians, Alabama might be the sole owner of all the Redneck Riviera's best beaches.

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