Toussaint earned a good living as a very popular hairdresser among New York society's upper echelon.

[3] Catherine ("Kitty") Church Cruger, two years older than Toussaint, would become one of his key clients and friends.

Due to connections among the French emigrant community in New York, Toussaint met people who knew the Bérards in Paris.

[7] On August 5, 1811, Toussaint married Juliette Noel, an enslaved woman 20 years his junior, after purchasing her freedom.

They adopted Euphemia, the daughter of his late sister Rosalie, who had died of tuberculosis, raising the girl as their own.

[4] Together, the Toussaints began a career of charity among people experiencing poverty in New York City, often taking baked goods to the children of the Orphan Asylum and donating money to its operations.

[7] He owned a house on Franklin Street, where the Toussaints sheltered orphans and fostered numerous boys in succession.

Many Haitian refugees went to New York, and because Toussaint spoke French and English, he frequently helped the new immigrants.

[7] Toussaint also helped raise money to build a new Catholic church in New York, which became Old St. Patrick's Cathedral on Mulberry Street.

He was a benefactor of the first New York City Catholic school for Black children at St. Vincent de Paul on Canal Street.