The Black experience and the struggle against enslavement in colonial America are at the root of European colonization. In the early sixteenth century, people of African descent were present at the earliest moments of Spanish, French, and English exploration. Captured, shipped, and sold in a brutal middle passage recounted by Alexander Falconbridge in “An Account of the Slave Trade on the Coast of Africa,” African labor was responsible for much of the economic export from the Americas into the Atlantic World. Sometimes free and often enslaved, Africans participated in European colonization as both laborers and interpreters. Most European colonists traveled to the Americas from a common port of origin and shared culture. However, Africans trafficked to the Americas represented a more diverse geographic area. They arrived in groups of varied language, experiences, and beliefs. When combined with European ideas, African expressions of culture and religion helped create distinctly American regional habits and customs. As the monetary value of enslaved Africans became a vital measurement of colonial success, Africans parlayed their experiences and leveraged their economic value to carve out space for themselves in colonial America. This can be seen in the captivity narratives of men like Olaudah Equiano and Venture Smith.