We often forget that slavery involved individuals, and that thus, inevitably, each experience was unique. How people managed to survive under enslavement is revealed in these accounts, although it should be noted that these examples and, inevitably, most of the surviving narratives of slavery, concern individuals who became free. Venture Smith bought his own freedom in 1765; Muhammad Kaba Saghanughu outlived his enslavement in Jamaica, dying in 1845, twelve years after his sons had been executed for their alleged involvement in the Christmas uprising of 1831-1832, and seven years following the end of apprenticeship in Jamaica in 1838. Gustavus Vassa purchased his freedom in 1766, twenty-three years before he published his autobiography as Olaudah Equiano, the African; and Mahommah Gardo Baquaqua escaped from enslavement in New York City in 1847 when his master took him there as he was delivering a shipload of Brazilian coffee. ${ }^{2}$ The actual amount of time spent in conditions of enslavement in these accounts varied considerably: for Baquaqua it lasted only two years, 1845-47; for Smith, it lasted 26 years, from 1739 to 1765 , after which he lived another forty years in freedom; for Kaba, it lasted from 1777 until the end of British slavery in 1834, that is 57 years, whereafter he lived again in freedom until his death in 1845; Vassa suffered slavery from 1753 until 1766, some 13 years, before attaining his freedom in his early twenties and living another 31 years, dying in relative affluence, as did Smith. The accounts reveal relative levels of success in surviving slavery and achieving some degree of prosperity despite obstacles that arose after purchasing freedom, including limitations on accumulation that amounted to an undeclared tax, racial in its determination. The narratives reveal struggle, sometimes bitterness, but always conviction. Achieving freedom was necessarily a personal and individual matter