[1][2] Couvent nonetheless obtained her freedom and later lived in New Orleans, although the events that led to these changes, and their dates, remain unknown.
[4][6] In her 70s, Marie Couvent informed Fr Constatine Maenhaut (sometimes written Manehault), a priest at St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans, of her desire to help found a school for Black orphans.
It read, in part: I bequeath and order that my land at the corner of Grands Hommes and Union streets [now Dauphine and Touro] be dedicated and used in perpetuity for the establishment of a free school for the colored orphans of the district of Marigny.
Lacroix aided in the foundation of the Society for the Instruction of Indigent Orphans, which raised funds and sued to gain access to Marie Couvent's property.
[1][7] They succeeded in winning their court case in 1846, and the school finally opened in 1848, eleven years after Marie Couvent's death.