“On my expressing a desire to see some of the colored folks, who have near relations, brothers, sisters &c at Florissant, [a former student] Mr Thompson had the kindness to assemble them & to allow me to inquire into their circumstances &c. They are all very good people, industrious, faithful, moral, &c. - the character given to them by their owners & their neighbors. But they have scarcely any chance to attend to their religious duties, & the children, several of them not yet baptized, grew up without any religious instruction whatever.“
Archives of the Maryland Province of the Society of Jesus