 More than in other areas of the South, many free blacks in New Orleans were middle class and well-educated; many were property owners.Catholics only started to become a significant part of the overall US population in the 1840s with the arrival of poor Irish and Southern Italian immigrants who congregated in urban Northern and non-slaveholding areas.Despite the issuance of "In supremo apostolatus", the American church continued in deeds, if not in public discourse, to support slaveholding interests.