Zumbi: The last king of Palmares - Marc Adam Hertzman & Flavio dos Santos Gomes

During the 1600s, an expansive autonomous settlement called Palmares reached its height in northeastern Brazil. It was founded and led by people escaping from slavery, also called maroons. In fact, it was one of the world’s largest maroon communities, its population reaching beyond 10,000. And its citizens were at constant war with colonial forces.

The records we have about Palmares mainly come from biased Dutch and Portuguese sources, but historians have managed to piece much of its story together. During the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, which began in the 1500s, nearly half of all enslaved African people were sent to Portugal’s American colony: Brazil. Some escaped and sought shelter in Brazil’s interior regions, where they formed settlements called mocambos or quilombos.

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. It consisted of a central capital linking dozens of villages, which specialized in particular agricultural goods or served as military training grounds. Citizens of Palmares, or Palmaristas, were governed by a king and defended by an organized military.

African people and Brazilian-born Black and Indigenous people all came seeking refuge. They collectively fished, hunted, raised livestock, planted orchards, and grew crops like cassava, corn, and sugarcane. They also made use of the abundant palm trees for which Palmares was named, turning palm products into butter, wine, and light. Palmaristas crafted palm husks into pipes and leaves into mats and baskets.

They 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 their internal threats. Palmares endangered the very institution of slavery—the foundation of Brazil's economy.

During the 1670s, the Portuguese escalated their attacks. By this time, Ganga-Zumba was Palmares’ leader. He ruled 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. As they fought the Portuguese, Palmaristas used the landscape to their advantage.

Camouflaged and built in high places, their mocambos 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, among them Zumbi—Ganga-Zumba’s nephew—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.

And on November 20th, 1695, Portuguese forces killed Zumbi. His death was not the end of Palmares, but it was a crushing blow. After years of warfare, there were far fewer rebels in the area. Those who remained rallied around new leaders and maintained a presence, however small, through the 1760s.

Though Palmares is no more, thousands of other quilombos persist to this day. November 20th, the day of Zumbi’s death, is celebrated across Brazil as the Day of Black Consciousness. But Zumbi was just one of many Palmaristas. We only know some of their names, but their fight for freedom echoes centuries later.