Quilombo dos Palmares

The most important Negro refuge (quilombo) during the colonial period accommodated more than 20,000 Negroes who had fled from estates in the region after refusing to obey the orders of their white masters. Occupying a large area between Pernambuco and Alagoas, Palmares became a federation of mocambos - a settlement of escaped slaves - organized under the direction of a warrior chief. The greatest resistance leader was Zumbi who replaced Ganga-Zumba after he was murdered on the orders of the governor, Pedro de Almeida.

In Palmares, as well as fleeing from slavery, the escaped Negroes tried to regain their cultural roots. They planted crops, kept pigs and chickens and even achieved over-production so that the extra foodstuffs enabled them to resist attacks by the colonial authorities for around one hundred years, from 1590, when the first news of the uprisings came out, to 1694, when the refuge was destroyed. Although wounded, Zumbi escaped the attack and continued with the resistance until he was betrayed and killed the following year. His mutilated head was sent to Recife and put on public display in a square. With his death, the ex-slaves' dream of liberty died too. Slavery in Brazil was to be abolished only in 1888.