The biographies of Francisca da Silva and Francisco Gomes de Andrade also demonstrate the diversity of slave experience in Bahia. Sugar production still dominated the province's economy in the first half of the nineteenth century, and many of the enslaved people imported from Africa at that time were set to work in the cane fields and processing mills of the Recôncavo. Even so, large numbers were also employed beyond sugar, including those like José Pedro Autran, employed in Salvador's urban economy, or Francisco Gomes de Andrade, employed in the transatlantic trade. The sites and character of the men's labour profoundly affected their subsequent opportunities. Urban slaves, like those involved in the transatlantic trade, generally had better chances of earning an income and accumulating capital that could be used to buy their freedom, or that of relatives or friends, than did enslaved people who performed agricultural labour on sugar plantations (Klein and Luna, 2010, pp. 78-85, pp. 89-90, pp. 107-112; Graham, 2010, pp. 35-6, 50-3, 67, 79-80, 101-4). These two types of enslaved person also enjoyed superior physical mobility and thus had greater opportunity to remain in touch with loved ones who did not share the same owner, even sometimes across the Atlantic. Although nothing is known about Francisca da Silva's work while enslaved, it is likely that she benefited materially from her religious activities. The lives of Brazilian enslaved people and freed people were characterized by a relentless struggle - to survive poverty and oppression, re-forge community, negotiate spaces of autonomy, and accumulate capital that could be turned to manumission and invested in slaves and other property. The stories of Francisca da Silva, her husband José Pedro Autran and Francisco Gomes de Andrade illustrate the strategies used by enslaved Africans who worked in urban environments or the transatlantic trade to achieve these goals.  
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