A Société des Amis des Noirs had been formed in Paris, in 1788. Its object was to end the slave trade and slavery, especially in San Domingo from which came many reports of cruelty and oppression. A little later, France in establishing the rights and equality of man passed through her awful revolution. Though Louisiana was in constant touch and sympathy with France, among her peaceful, pleasure-loving people no sentiment about negro freedom or equality seems to have been evolved. When this great territory passed into the United States, it carried with it its institution of slavery, which, established as it was in the habits and thoughts of these people, strengthened slavery’s hold upon the South, pushed further away, and complicated with added difficulties the fulfillment of the hope of those great Southerners who had looked for its gradual and peaceful termination. In the government of this new territory we again meet with the large vision of Jefferson and his desire to curtail slavery. Outside importations were forbidden, and only slaves who had been brought to this country before 1798 could be carried by their masters for the purpose of settlement into Louisiana. All others carried in would be freed and the penalty for each offense would be three hundred dollars. To prepare the seafaring interests for the statute of 1808, and to lead American sentiment to its acceptance, Congress in the early part of the same year (1803) prohibited after April 1, 1803, the importation of any persons of color, or the entry of any vessels containing such persons into those States whose laws already debarred such importation. Indians were not included in this prohibition. The penalty for the first violation was a fine of one thousand dollars for every such person, one half to be appropriated to the United States and the other to be given to the informer. For the latter offense, the vessel and all appurtenances were to be confiscated by the United States, one half the net proceeds to be given to such “person or persons on whose information the seizure of such forfeiture shall be made.”[12]