During the 1600s, Palmares, an autonomous settlement located in northeastern Brazil, reached its height. It was founded and led by maroons, or people escaping from slavery. It was one of the largest maroon communities in the world, with a population of over 10,000 people. Its citizens were in a constant state of war with colonial forces.
The records about Palmares mainly come from Dutch and Portuguese sources that are biased. However, historians have managed to piece together much of its story. During the Trans-Atlantic slave trade that began in the 1500s, nearly half of all enslaved African people were sent to Portugal’s American colony, Brazil.
Some escaped and formed settlements called mocambos or quilombos in Brazil’s interior regions. Fugitives from slavery probably arrived in the northeast in the late 1500s. By the 1660s, their camps had consolidated into a powerful confederation known today as the Quilombo of Palmares.
The Quilombo of Palmares consisted of a central capital linking dozens of villages that specialized in producing particular agricultural goods or serving as military training grounds. Palmares citizens, or Palmaristas, were governed by a king and defended by an organized military. African people, Brazilian-born Black, and Indigenous people all came seeking refuge.
Palmaristas collectively fished, hunted, raised livestock, planted orchards, and grew crops like cassava, corn, and sugarcane. They also made use of abundant palm trees, for which Palmares was named, to create butter, wine, and light. Palmaristas crafted palm husks into pipes and leaves into mats and baskets.
Palmaristas traded some of these goods with Portuguese settlers for products like gunpowder and salt. In turn, settlers avoided Palmares’ raids during which they’d seize weapons and take captives. The Portuguese were concerned with other invading imperialists but regarded Indigenous uprisings and Palmares as internal threats.
Palmares endangered the very institution of slavery, which was the foundation of Brazil’s economy. During the 1670s, the Portuguese escalated their attacks. By this time, Ganga-Zumba was Palmares’ leader, ruling from the Macaco, which functioned as the capital. His allies and family members governed the other villages, with women playing crucial roles in operation and defense.
Palmaristas used the landscape to their advantage while fighting the Portuguese. Their mocambos, camouflaged and built in high places, offered superior lookouts. They constructed hidden ditches lined with sharp stakes that swallowed unsuspecting soldiers and false roads that led to ambushes. They launched counterattacks under the cover of night and were constantly abandoning and building settlements to elude the Portuguese.
In 1678, after years of failed attacks, the Portuguese offered to negotiate a peace treaty with Ganga-Zumba. The terms they agreed upon recognized Palmares’ independence and the freedom of anyone born there. However, the treaty demanded that Palmares pledge loyalty to the crown and return all past and future fugitives from slavery.
Many Palmaristas dissented, including Zumbi, Ganga-Zumba’s nephew, who was a rising leader himself. Before long, Ganga-Zumba was killed, likely by a group affiliated with his nephew. As Palmares’ new leader, Zumbi rejected the treaty and resumed resistance for another 15 years. But in February of 1694, the Portuguese captured the capital after a devastating siege.
Zumbi escaped, but they eventually found and ambushed him. On November 20th, 1695, Portuguese forces killed Zumbi. His death was not the end of Palmares, but it was a crushing blow.