O quilombo or mocambo is the name given to communities formed mostly by remnants of fugitives from slavery at the Brazil and that go back to Colonial period. It was also one of the forms of resistance to the slave system that these populations encountered, often after individual and collective escapes from slave quarters and plantations. Even after abolition of slavery, in 1888, these communities continued to exist and were, for a long time, totally neglected and forgotten by the public authorities.
O quilombo name started to be used more from the second half of the 17th century, in Brazil, especially with the emergence of Quilombo dos Palmares, in the then region of the Captaincy of Pernambuco. Today these communities are a fundamental part of the history of Brazil and represent one of its greatest symbols of resistance.
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How did the quilombos come about?
through the slave trade, thousands of men and women arrived at the time
Brazil Colony from several different places in theAfrican continent. Many of them were even enslaved in Africa itself. These people brought to the c.American continent a series of knowledge about mining, planting, construction, metallurgy, as well as habits, languages, among numerous other contributions, being, therefore, fundamental for the development of Brazil during O Colonial period.Faced with the reality to which they were subjected here in Brazil, many revolted, causing insurrections, rebellions and, also, escapes, which took place collectively or individually. These escapes gave rise to different types of communities, some temporary, others permanent. These communities came to be called, firstly, mocambos and after quilombos.
Both expressions were terms from the Central Africa to designate makeshift camps during periods of war or slave capture. Mocambo would have come from languages Kimbundu and kicongo and referred to structures used to build huts. already the word quilombo, originating from family languages bando, in addition to referring to the encampments, it was also associated with warriors imbangalas, and only began to appear in historical documents from the colonial period in the late 17th century.
The emergence of these communities occurred, first, in the Northeast region of the country, in the context of the implementation of the system of plantation, during the beginning of the Sugar Cycle, in the mid-16th century. It is worth remembering that Brazil received, between the 16th and 19th centuries, around 4.9 million enslaved Africans, being the biggest destination of the slave trade on the American continent.
Read too:How was the life of slaves after the Golden Law?
How was life in the quilombos?
there were several types of quilombos. This variety depended a lot on the cultural, demographic and geographic factors of each one of them. Although there was a predominance of slaves who fled plantations and slave quarters, coming from different ethnic groups, the quilombos were also formed by indigenous, mestizos, among others who took refuge in these structures.
In order to survive, many of these quilombos maintained economic relations with various sectors of colonial society, such as farmers, fishermen, miners, peasants, peddlers, etc., in addition to perform different types of activities, such as plantations, mining, production of cassava flour, in addition to looting on farms.
Regarding the life within the quilombos, there are not many sources that can indicate an existing pattern in the formation of these structures or recurrent characteristics. All of this depended a lot on the region in which each one of them settled, on the social groups that made them up, among other factors. What is important to highlight is that, although there was a traditional historiography that pointed to a certain “isolation” of the quilombolas from the rest of colonial society, this is not what recent studies have pointed out, even indicating an intense sociocultural and economic relationship between they.
Read too: Captain of the forest and slave escapes
Examples of quilombos
Quilombos spread into several regions during the Colonial Period, including Bahia, Maranhão, Pernambuco, Goiás, Paraíba, São Paulo, Rio Grande do Sul, Mato Grosso, Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro and the Amazon region, that is, covered an extensive part of the Brazilian territory at that time.
Among so many quilombos, the Quilombo dos Palmares was one of the best known in historiography on the subject, having appeared in the second half of the 17th century, in Serra da Barriga, located in the then Captaincy of Pernambuco. It lasted for almost a century, with an estimated 30,000 inhabitants. In it, names like the couple stood out Zumbi dos Palmares, leader of the quilombo, and Dandara, that she was an important warrior.
Other quilombos that stood out were: o Campo Grande Quilombo, which was a kind of confederation of quilombos, whose was part of the Quilombo do Ambrose, both in the Captaincy of Minas Gerais region; The Caxambu Quilombola Community, also in Minas Gerais; O Quilombo Ivaporunduva, in Sao Paulo; O Quilombo of Rio das Rãs, in Bahia; and also the Kalunga Quilombo, the largest quilombola remnant – that is, it still exists today – and is located in the regions of Monte Alegre de Goiás and Cavalcante (GO).
