[40] See Benezet's "An Historical Account of Guinea." Clarkson, "The History of the Abolition of the African Slave Trade," I, 169. [41] "Slavery a Century ago," p. 4. [42] Vaux, "Memoirs of Anthony Benezet," 32. [43] _Ibid._, 44. [44] Vaux, "Memoirs, etc.," 42. [45] _Ibid._, 38. [46] "The African Repository," IV, 61. [47] "Slavery a Century ago," 25. [48] Vaux, "Memoirs, etc." 135. [49] _Ibid._, 134. PEOPLE OF COLOR IN LOUISIANA PART II Louisiana was transferred to Spain but was not long to be secure in the possession of that country. France again claimed her in 1800, and Napoleon, busy with his English war and realizing the dangers of a province so open to British attack as was this bounded by the Mississippi and the Gulf of Mexico, readily listened to the proposition of the United States. Twenty days after the French tri-color waved in place of the Spanish flag in the old Place d'Armes, the American stars and stripes proclaimed the land American territory. The Creoles, French though they were in spirit, in partisanship, in sympathy, could not but breathe a sigh of relief, for Napoleon had dangerous ideas concerning the freedom of slaves, and already had spoken sharply about the people of color in the province.[50] Were the terrors of San Domingo to be reenacted on the banks of Mississippi? The United States answered with a decided negative. Men of color, however, were to be important factors in the maintenance of order in the province.[51] Laussat, the Colonial Prefect of France, placed in charge of Louisiana in 1803, tells how the old Spanish Governor Salcedo, in his anxiety to keep the province loyal to Spain, had summoned all the military officers of the militia to come to his lodgings and declare whether they intended to remain in the service of the king of Spain. "The Marquis," writes Laussat to his friend Decres, "went so far as to exact a declaration in the affirmative from two companies of men of color in New Orleans, which were composed of all the mechanics whom that city possessed. Two of these mulattoes complained to me of having been detained twenty-four hours in prison to force them to utter the fatal yea which was desired of them."[52]