Baquaqua had many problems during his first months in Haiti: he could not speak French or Haitian Creole and started to drink heavily. Through an African-American contact named Jones, however, he met the Reverend Judd at the American Free Baptist Mission in early October 1847 and began an association with the Freewill Baptists that would change his life. He started to work as a cook and was soon converted and baptized before being sent back to the United States to avoid being drafted to fight the wars promoted by the president of Haiti, Faustin-Élie Soulouque, to conquer the whole island. He then travelled to upstate New York to spend three years studying at Central College in McGrawville, NY, and took part in a network of Baptist abolitionists in New York, Pennsylvania and Canada West, which ultimately led to the publication of his biography in 1854.  
[^0]
[^0]:    13 José da Rocha's master was Antonio José da Rocha Pereira, the Portuguese owner of the Lembrança and business partner of captain Clemente José da Costa (Bezerra 2015).
14 The "Brazilian Slave Case" story was reported in many newspapers in the United States and Brazil, including The National Anti-Slavery Standard of 12 August 1847; The Liberator of 20 August; Nile's National Register of 24 July; and the Anti-Slavery Bugle of 3 September.  
![img-6.jpeg](img_ref_7)
figure 3. New York Central College, 1848  
Source: McGraw Historical Society. Stereopticon card "Old N.Y. Central College - showing pupils 1848."
Slave narratives constituted a literary genre with considerable editorial power in the United States and Great Britain, especially among abolitionists and religious groups. According to Bezerra (2011), '[m]any books written or dictated by freed slaves were used as abolitionist propaganda tools, both in England, in the late eighteenth century, as in the United States even before the mid-nineteenth century' (Bezerra, 2011, p. 140). More than 6,000 narratives have appeared in a variety of publications in the United States (Olney, 1984, pp. 46-73).