e two countries, England and America, was
distorted by both sides to read anything they wished. The English took
a high stand of altruism, of a desire to free the oppressed; the
Louisianians took as high a stand of wishing to grow old with their
own slaves. It was an amusing incident which the slaves watched with
interest. In the end the colored men were restored, and the
interpretation of the treaty ceased.[75]

Following the War of 1812 the free people of color occupied a peculiar
position in Louisiana, especially in New Orleans. There were distinct
grades of society. The caste system was almost as strong as that of
India. Free people of color from other states poured into Louisiana in
a steady stream. It was a haven of refuge. Those were indeed halcyon
times both for the Creole and the American, who found in the rapidly
growing city a commercial El Dorado. For the people of color it was
indeed a time of growth and acquisition of wealth. Three famous
streets in New Orleans bear testimony to the importance of the colored
people in the life of the city. Congo Square, one of the great open
squares in the old Creole quarter, was named for the slaves who used
to congregate in its limits and dance the weird dances to the tunes of
blood-stirring minor strains. Those who know the weird liet-motif of
Coleridge-Taylor's Bamboula dance have heard the tune of the Congo
dance, which every child in New Orleans could sing. Gottschalk's Danse
des Negres is almost forgotten by this generation but in it he
recorded the music of the West Indians. Camp Street, to-day one of the
principal business streets in the city, was so called because it ran
back of the old Campo de Negros.[76] Julia Street, which runs along
the front of the so-called New Basin, a canal of great commercial
importance, connecting, as it does, the city with Lake Pontchartrain,
and consequently, the greater gulf trade, was named for one Julia, a
free woman of color, who owned land along the banks.[77] What Julia's
cognomen was, where she came from, and whence she obtained the
valuable property are hidden in the silent grave in which time
encloses mere mortals. Somewhere in the records of the city it is
recorded that one Julia, a F. W. C. (free woman of color), owned this
land.

The minor distinctions of complexion and race so fiercely adhered to
by the Creoles of the old regime were at their height at this time.
The glory and shame of the city were her quadroons and o