The secret transfer of Spanish “Luisiana” to France placed the United States and the French Republic on a similar collision course. It also drew the British into the controversy.
President Jefferson instantly pledged to form an alliance with the detested British; Napoleon feared that the British fleet would seize New Orleans. In need of money for his planned European campaigns, Napoleon authorized the sale of his indefensible New World realm of Louisiana to the United States.
Many Louisianans were shocked by the rapid transfer of sovereignty from Spain to France, then to the United States. Spain did not accept the validity of the treaty and intrigued over the next decade with malcontent Louisianans to detach from the United States. Free blacks constituted 13.5 percent of the population of the County of Orleans in 1806. Under the Spanish they maintained a military organization, a privilege that was withdrawn by the United States’ territorial government.
Governor Claiborne feared not simply a slave revolt, but a revolt led by the free blacks, who could enlist the support of enslaved people (49 percent of the population), Indian nations, and Spanish regular troops.
