Quilombos

Abstract

Between the 16th and 19th centuries, great numbers of men and women in the Americas escaped slavery by joining communities of fugitives. In Brazil, these communities were called mocambos, at first, and they were later referred to as quilombos, both of which were African terms that designated camps in several small societies in Central West Africa. It remains unclear to researchers what terms fugitives used to name themselves. As far as is known, the Portuguese colonial administration was responsible for disseminating the terms mocambos and quilombos. Colonial authorities moved around the Portuguese Empire and frequently took up posts in Africa and Asia prior to their arrival in South America. The term quilombo originally designated both Portuguese military strategies in precolonial Africa and forms of resistance to slavery in Portuguese America. Therefore, by using the term, colonial authorities could be referring to two different entities: war and prisoner camps in Central Africa or communities of runaway slaves in Brazil. Apart from that fact, several military officials who served in Africa had previous experiences in military campaigns against Dutch attacks in the 17th century in Portuguese America as well as in expeditions to dismantle mocambos and capture indigenous slaves. In any case, the term quilombo emerges only in the colony’s historical documentation by the end of the 17th century. Before that time, runaway communities were most commonly referred to by the name mocambos. Found in documents of colonial administration of the Captaincy of Bahia, the earliest reference to mocambos in Portuguese America dates from 1757. By the late 16th century, records point to the existence of Quilombo dos Palmares in the Captaincy of Pernambuco. Colonial authorities did not consider it completely destroyed until the beginning of the 18th century. Other large quilombos emerged during the 18th century in mining areas of Goiás, Mato Grosso, and Minas Gerais. Throughout the 19th century, quilombo communities proliferated in various locations: they could be found close to mining areas, plantations, or smaller farms; in vacant lands on economic frontiers and backlands inhabited by indigenous peoples; and in border areas such as those between Brazil and the Guianas. They also became part of urban landscapes, especially in the last decades of the 19th century. However, these communities were smaller, the modest dimensions of which enabled their longevity. Defined by specific cultural, social, and economic lifestyles and worldviews, quilombo communities survived post-abolition and they exist up to today.