![img-5.jpeg](img_ref_6)
figure 2. Recently freed enslaved men in Rio Grande do Sul  
Source: Ferrari, J. 1884. "Negros recém libertos em Porto Alegre". Fototeca Sioma Breitman, 588 F - [Negros Libertos], 1875/1900. Ferrari, Jacinto Museu de Porto Alegre Joaquim Felizardo.  
had a chance to assert his Hausa identity on occasion and felt at home among people who shared the same identity. It is important to remember that 'culture was accretive and assertions of identities were situational, dependent on claims and attributions calibrated to constantly shifting sets of sociopolitical demands' (Sweet, 2009, p. 283)  
The Lembrança, loaded with coffee, arrived in New York City on 27 June 1847 and docked at the foot of Roosevelt Street in Manhattan. A loosely organized group of local abolitionists known as the New York Vigilance Society approached the ship and started a legal tug-of-war over the conditions of enslavement to which some of the crew were subjected. After failed attempts by Baquaqua and two enslaved colleagues, Maria da Costa and José da Rocha, ${ }^{13}$ to jump ship and escape, their abolitionist friends filed a writ of habeas corpus requiring the delivery of the three enslaved persons to the Court of Common Pleas of New York. Having come from Brazil, they were initially sent back to the ship while the first two trials took place and Baquaqua and one of the other two were then jailed. Before the final judgement was passed, abolitionists helped the two men to escape from prison and ensured their passage via Springfield, Mass., to Boston, Massachusetts. They subsequently left for Haiti, arriving in Port-auPrince in September 1847. ${ }^{14}$