I'm currently developing a historical reality series called "Taking On History".
The objective is to take historical events that are either largely unknown or only known in a limited "high school text book" context and recreate (or reverse engineer) the event from the perspective of a specific individual from the time period who had a seminal role in the story. For example, one of our episodes involves the run-away slave Henry "Box" Brown who shipped himself in a box from Richmond, VA to Philadelphia, PA. In recreating the story I will be shipped in a replica of the box under similar conditions and using the same modes of transportation.
We're currently working on a story about The Louisiana Purchase and the creative conceit is that we will attempt to sell the whole state of Louisiana (or at least New Orleans) back to the French.
We haven't identified an appropriate historical figure who could be the proxy through which we tell the story. Perhaps it was someone in New Orleans who opposed the sale and tried to stop it since the French citizens in the territory did not want to become a part of the US (and didn't even speak English). Ultimately we're looking for someone with a more active "boots on the ground" involvement than the politicians behind the scenes in either Jefferson's or Napoleon's camp who were mostly talking heads.
Any guidance would be appreciated.
Your idea to sell the "whole state of Louisiana (or at least New Orleans) back to the French" is somewhat of a misnomer- the Louisiana territory extended all the way up the MS river into Canada.
Also, the citizens of the colony largely only considered themselves French through their heritage. Though Napoleon acquired ownership of the territory in 1800 through the Treaty of Ildefonso, the whole thing was a secret. For 3 years. Prior to that Spain officially owned the territory from 1762-1800.
Additionally, the Louisiana Purchase only involved politicians and "talking heads." Nobody with "boots on the ground" would have had any idea about the Louisiana Purchase taking place. People were mostly still surprised they were French again, much less American.
The best example of this is probably Laussat. He became governor of Louisiana (in New Orleans) about 2 weeks before Napoleon sold it. He actually governed it for several months before he even got word that he was no longer governor and the colony had been sold.
Most colonists at the time (in New Orleans) were creole- meaning a mix of French of Spanish, in this instance. Arguably by the time the LA purchase occurred, the colonists were more spanish than french. Further, they thought (as in the regular, ordinary people living there) they were owned by Spain literally until Laussat arrived in 1803. Then a few months later- they learned they were now owned by the USA.
[edit]: Just wanted to add that most of the colonists only became incensed regarding their "Americanization" when Jefferson tried to implement US law in the colony through the least diplomatic governor he possibly could have chosen- Claiborne. The Spanish law of the siete partidas and the French napoleonic code were substantively similar (and both available in French). The US law was seen as an affront to the colony's autonomy. They (the Louisianans) had fully expected to be able to perpetuate their culture under Jefferson as they had under Spain and France. It was only after that culture was threatened that they protested.