This article analyes the trajectory of the freed African Joao de Oliveira, enslaved in Recife at the beginning of the 18th century, became a sailor on board slave ships on the route between Bahia and Slave Coast, where he settled years later. In this region, he would have been responsible for opening New Port and Onim for the Bahia's slave trade, in the middle of the 18th century. The experience of this freedman is used not only to understand the transatlantic African trafficking between Bahia and Slave Coast, but also to analyze the strategies developed by Africans to affirm their freedom and autonomy. For this, we investigated beyond the inquest process that Joao de Oliveira faced when returning to Bahia, in 1770, parish sources and records from Santa Casa de Misericordia and court cases of second instance.