For reasons unknown, D'Avezac was silent on Osifekunde's early life in Brazil, a gap that can now be filled with scattered sources in archives and private collections across Africa, France, and Brazil, and from online sources. After landing in Brazil in 1820, D'Avezac claimed he became "the property" of a Rio de Janeiro-based French trader, "Navarre," since identified as Jean-Baptiste Navarre. ${ }^{16}$ But this was a later event. It now appears that in the 1820s, Osifekunde, according to Alberto da Silva and Olabiyi Yai, was sold to a Recife-based merchant and slaver, Joaquim José da Costa, whose slaving business tentacles reached the Bight of Benin. In addition to selling enslaved Africans in Brazil, he had investments in ships and crew going to Africa. It was from him Osifekunde received the name Joaquim, as enslaved people,  
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[^0]:    16 Davezac, Notice, p. 22 and Lloyd, "Osifekunde," p. 237. D'Avezac likely used Rio de Janeiro as a generic name for Brazil. Whether this was to shield Brazilian merchants (including French) against accusations of violating the 1815 treaty limiting the slave to places south of the Equator is unknown.  
as social minors, customarily assumed the enslavers' names. ${ }^{17}$ After da Costa's death in 1831 his family hired one of his trade partners, Navarre, who also worked as a broker and auctioneer, to sell off his property including a small ship, four enslaved people, and the ship's crew. The auction was completed in 1832. ${ }^{18}$ Navarre's commission for the job, in addition to cash payment, included Osifekunde, reinforcing the global practice of treating people as wealth, enslaved people as currency, and enslaved adults as large currency bills. ${ }^{19}$ Yai, posits the abolitionist debate in 1831 Brazil, spooked the market and created temporary selloffs. In his words, "the family hoped to avert losses from resistance, price decline, bankruptcy, like 1835." Santana thinks the sale was aimed at paying off da Costa's debt. ${ }^{20}$