The main purpose of this article is to discuss the possible congruencies between a global and a micro-analytical perspective taking the large field of labor history as a privileged standpoint. The story of the “liberated african” Augusto, who lived and worked in the Island of Santa Catarina in Southern Brazil in the mid- nineteenth century, is connected to the current debate on the emergence of Global History, exploring the tension between the demand for a “Big Picture” and the close analysis of singular cases such as his, as well as the place that his story might occupy in a larger discussion of the history of labor.