Primary Source #1: Bailey and Kennedy, eds., The American Spirit, Volume I: To 1877, Houghton Mifflin,1998 African-born James L. Bradley was a slave who purchased his freedom. In 1834, while a student at the Lane Seminary in Cincinnati, Ohio, he wrote a short account of his life. This is an excerpt from his account.

… I will begin as far back as I can remember. I think I was between two and three years old when the soul-destroyers tore me from my mother’s arms, somewhere in Africa, far back from the sea. They carried me a long distance to a ship; all the way I looked back, and cried. The ship was full of men and women loaded with chains; but I was so small, they let me run about on deck. After many long days, they brought us into Charleston, South Carolina. A slaveholder bought me, and took me up into Pendleton County. I suppose that I staid [stayed] with him about six months. He sold me to a Mr. Bradley, by whose name I have ever since been called. This man was considered a wonderfully kind master; and it is true that I was treated better than most of the slaves I knew. I never suffered for food, and never was flogged with the whip; but oh, my soul! I was tormented with kicks and knocks more than I can tell. My master often knocked me down, when I was young. Once, when I was a boy, about nine years old, he struck me so hard that I fell down and lost my senses. I remained thus some time, and when I came to myself, he told me he thought he had killed me. At another time, he struck me with a currycomb [metal comb used for grooming horses], and sunk the knob into my head. I have said that I had food enough; I wish I could say as much concerning my clothing. But I let that subject alone, because I cannot think of any suitable words to use in telling you.…

Question: How did James L. Bradley obtain his freedom?