An investigation of the Carroll Family's Irish roots and the efforts to retain their faith and prosper that led them to Maryland had unanticipated twists. This colony had initially welcomed Catholic residents, extending civil rights that were denied in England or Ireland, but later passed harsh laws denying these rights. Because the Maryland assembly never managed to enact any laws depriving Catholics of the right to own land or to inherit property, the Carrolls were able to build and preserve their fortune in part through the work of enslaved people whose lives are also extensively documented in the family papers. The Carrolls were part of a world that eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Marylanders--black and white, bound and free--made together.