Resistance and Accommodation in Eighteenth-Century Brazil: The Slaves’ View of Slavery

Abstract

To a great extent, despite an extensive and ever-increasing bibliography, the histoiy of slavery in Brazil remains to be written. As an institution that persisted in Brazil for almost four centuries, the nature and conditions of slavery underwent a series of modifications related to changes in the economy, the social structure, and the dominant cultural norms. Moreover, we should not forget the continuous influence of the Africans themselves on the shape of the institution which molded their destiny as Brazilians. Within these four centuries of change there are certain constant themes and among them is the continuous struggle of African or Brazilian born slaves against the institution of slavery. The great quilombo of Palmares, the revolt of the Males in Bahia, and other such dramatic events are now relatively well known by historians of Brazil and students of slavery in general. However there were many others.' In this short article I wish to present some infor-mation concerning a long-forgotten slave revolt that occurred in Ilheus (now a part of the state of Bahia) at the end of the eighteenth century. While the revolt itself was a relatively minor affair, it is especially significant because it produced the only contemporaneous document now known