In his writings and those of others about him, we can see how the experience of his diasporic trajectory through changing circumstances and cultural contexts changed him as a man, on the one hand, and one how he developed various layers of identity and ethnicity, on the other, the two processes being intricately interconnected. To study how those layers were constructed, Lovejoy (2011) proposes 'a methodology that attempts, through the lens of ethnicity, to shift the focus from aggregate numbers and broad generalizations about slavery to individual experiences' (Lovejoy, 2011, p. 93). According to Lovejoy (1997), 'in studying slavery and the slave trade, biography can capture details of history' and '[b]y re-inserting individuals into the reality of slavery, [can] put flesh on the bones of the past'. Personal accounts, even second-hand, 'can thereby inform  
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[^0]:    3 Arquivo Histórico do Rio Grande do Sul. Série Marinha. Março 24. Rio Grande, 2a Tabelionato, Transmissão e Notas, Livro 21, fls 73.a.
4 Letter from ALP to Br. Walker, Montrose, PA, July 1853, in The American Baptist, No. 5 (28 July 1853). The copyright was registered on 18 July 1854 by the clerk William D. Wilkins. See William L. Jenks, Michigan Copyrights, Port Huron, Register 1824-1870; available at: https://archive.org/details/ MichiganCopyrights18241870/page/n45/mode/2up?view=theater (Accessed 5 August 2022.)  
our understanding of ethnicity, religion and more broadly culture and how these changed with the time'. (Lovejoy, 1997, p. 119).