Hostname: page-component-84b7d79bbc-lrf7s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-08-02T16:14:22.209Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Palmares: An African State in Brazil*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

R. K. Kent
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Without slaves from Africa, reported an early Portuguese source, ‘it is impossible to do anything in Brazil’ Although prior arrivals are suspected, the first known landing of slaves from Africa on Brazilian soil took place in 1552. In 1580, five years after the founding of Loanda and on the eve of Brazil's sugar boom, there were no fewer than 10,000 Africans in Brazil. Fifty years later, Pernambuco alone imported 4,400 slaves annually from Africa. It also contained 150 engenhos, or a third of the total sugar-mill and plantation complex in Brazil. In 1630, the Dutch West India Company (WIC) captured Pernambuco, and within a decade Portugal had abandoned Brazil to the Dutch. It was ultimately the decision of local settlers, the moradores, to fight the West India Company that led to restoration of Portuguese control in 1654. The Dutch retreat from Brazil, however, was secured through a joint Afro-Portuguese effort which gave the Black Regiment of Henrique Dias its colonial fame. If early settlement and a sugar-based economy could not have been sustained without the African labourer, neither could the Portuguese continue to hold Brazil without the African soldier. The subsequent evolution of Brazil is no less a story of Euro-African enterprise. Exploitation of gold and diamonds in the eighteenth century, pioneering shifts of population from the coast to the interior, dilution of monoculture, formation of mining states or advent of an abolitionist movement in the nineteenth century were all dependent on the same combination. The blend of race, language and culture in contemporary Brazil confirms this evolution.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 6 , Issue 2 , July 1965 , pp. 161 - 175
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1965

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Quoted by de Neto Mello, J. A. G. in Novos Estudos Afro-Brasileiros, 1937, II, 205. The original source is Breve Discurso Sobre o Estado das Quatras Capitanias Conquistadas (n.d.).Google Scholar

2 Neiva, Artur Hehl, Provenencia das Primeiras Levas dos Escravos Africanos, Anais, Instituto Historico e Geographico Brasileiro (1949), IV, 491–2.Google Scholar

3 Calmon, Pedro, Historia do Brasil (1949), II, 347.Google Scholar

4 Boxer, Charles R., Salvador de Sà and the Struggle for Brazil and Angola, 1602–1686 (1952), 225.Google Scholar

5 Mauro, Frederic, Le Portugal et l'Atlantique, 1570–1670 (1960), 193 (Table).Google Scholar

6 The standard English-language works are: Boxer, Charles R., The Golden Age of Brazil (1961)Google Scholar; Gilberto Freyre, The Masters and the Slaves: A Study in the Development of Brazilian Civilization (1956); and Arthur Ramos, The Negro in Brazil (1939).

7 ‘Negro’, as a term used in colonial Brazil, did not apply to pretos (‘Blacks’) alone. It included sometimes pardos or gente do cor, people ‘of colour’ not easily accepted as either pretos or brancos (‘Whites’). It also applied to crioulos or those born in Brazil of African or mixed parentage, to ladinos or those who spoke Portuguese and usually espoused the Catholic faith, and to the Africanos or those who were neither Portuguese-speaking nor native to Brazil.

8 For a recent summary in the pages of this Journal, see Rodrigues, José Honório, ‘The Influence of Africa on Brazil and of Brazil on Africa’, J.A.H., III (1962), 49–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

9 Cf. Codman, J., Ten Months in Brazil (Boston, 1867);Google ScholarCouty, L., L'Esclavage au Brésil (Paris, 1881);Google ScholarDent, C. H., A Year in Brazil (London, 1886);Google ScholarGardner, G., Travels in the Interior of Brazil, 1836–1841 (London, 1849);Google ScholarKidder, D. P., Sketches of Residence and Travels in Brazil (London, 1845);Google ScholarKoster, H., Travels in Brazil, 1809–1815 (Philadelphia, 1817, 2 vols.);Google Scholarde Saint-Hilaire, A., Voyages dans l'Intérieur du Brésil (Paris, 1852);Google Scholar and von Spix, J. B. and von Martius, C. F. P., Travels in Brazil, 1817–1820 (London, 1824, 2 vols.).Google Scholar

10 Carneiro, Edison, O Quilombo dos Palmares, 1630–1695 (1947), 13.Google Scholar

11 Gomes, Alfredo, Achegas para a Historia do Trafico Africano no Brasil, Anais, I.H.G.B. (1950), V, 56 (Tables I and II).Google Scholar

12 See: Brash, Etienne Ignace, La Secte Musulmane des Malês et leur Revolte en 1835, Anthropos (1909), IV, 99–105 and 405–15;Google Scholarde Caldas Britto, A. E., Levantos de Pretos na Bahia, Revista, I.H.G.B. (Bahia) (1903), XXIX, 69–90;Google Scholar and Rodrigues, Nina R., Os Africanos no Bresil (1945) for pertinent chapter.Google Scholar

13, 14 da Rocha Pitta, Sebastião, Historia da America Portugueza (first edition, 1730), 1880, Book VIII, 239Google Scholar; Southey, Robert, History of Brazil, III, 1819, 27;Google ScholarEnnes, Ernesto, ‘The Palmares “Republic” of Pernambuco: Its Final Destruction’, The Americans (1949), V, 209–10.Google Scholar

15 Ennes, Ernest, As Guerras nos Palmares (1938), 113.Google Scholar

16 Sluiter, Engel in preface to the ‘Report on the State of Brazil, 1612’, Hispanic American Historical Review (1949), XXIX/4, 521;Google Scholar full Portuguese text reproduced, 521–62. It is generally accepted the Diogo de Campos Moreno, aide to governor Diogo de Meneses (1608–12), penned the ‘Rezão do Estado do Brasil’.

17 Revista do Instituto Historico e Geographico Brasileiro (1841), III, 151–4; (1851), XIV, 491.

18 First-hand descriptions (1645), ‘Diario da Viagem do Capitão João Blaer aos Palmares’, actually written by Jürgens Reijmbach (extract from the Brieven en Papieren uit Brasilien, translated into Portuguese by de Carvalho, Alfredo for the Revista do Instituto Arqueológico Pernambucano (1902), X, 87–96;Google Scholar (1675–1678) ‘Relacão das Guerras feitas aos Palmares de Pernambuco no tempo do Governador d. Pedro de Almeida’, R.I.H.G.B. (1859), XXII, 303–29.Google Scholar Material from the Municipality of Alagoas: (1668–80) 22 ‘Documentos’ from the Segundo Livro de Veracões (n.d.). Material from the Arquivo Historico Colonial in Lisbon: (1671–97) 95 ‘Documentos’ collected and published by Ennes, Ernesto (1938), 133–484.Google Scholar First-hand descriptions and materials from Municipality of Alagoas have been printed together in the document appendix to Carneiro's, EdisonO Quilombo dos Palmares, 2nd edition (1958), 201–68,Google Scholar and will be quoted from that volume. Material of dubious value: ‘Memoria dos feitos que se deram durante os primeiros anos da Guerra corn os Negros quilombolas, dos Palmares’, R.I.H.G.B. (1876), xxxix, 293–322. This would-be ‘Memoria dos feitos has been discredited as a doctored copy of the ‘Relacão das Guerras’, published in the same Review seventeen years earlier.

19 Cf. Pitta, 1880, Book VIII, 235; Southey (1819), III, 23; Do Loreto Couto, Domincos, Desaggravos do Brasil e glorias do Pernambuco (1757), Book VIII, chap. 4; and F. A. de Varnhagen, Historia geral do Brasil, 1930 ed., III, 319.Google Scholar

20 History (1819), III, 248 and 248n.

21 Montebello to Overseas Council, 5 Sept. 1692, in Ennes (1938), 243.

22 Denis, Ferdinand, Résumé de l'Histoire du Brésil (1825), 147.Google Scholar

23 Giovanni Antonio Cavazzi da Montecuccolo, Istorica descrittione de' tre regni Congo, Matamba e Angola (1687), 207; (1690), 163 and 165 (Chi-Lambo Plan).

24 de Souza, B. J., Dicionario da Terra e da Gente do Brasil (1939), 267; H. Capello and R. Ivens, De Benguella a Terras de lacca (1881), 130.Google Scholar

25 Quoted by Ribeiro, René, ‘Relations of the Negro with Christianity in Portuguese America’, The Americas (1958), XIV/4, 458.Google Scholar

26 do Salvador, Frei Vicente, Historia do Brasil, 1560–1627 (1961 ed.), 315.Google Scholar

27 Do Salvador (1961), 315.

28 ‘Report on the State of Brazil’, H.A.H.R., XXIX/4, 553; Carneiro (1958), 90; Carneiro worked with an earlier copy.Google Scholar

29 ‘Correspondencia do Diogo Botelho, Governador do Estado do Brazil (1602–1628)’, R.I.H.G.B. (1910), LXXIII/I, 86 and 151.Google Scholar

30 Malheiro, A. M. Perdigão, A Escravidão no Brasil (1867), part III, 21; Renato Mendonça, A Influencia Africana no Portugues do Brasil (1935), 220.Google Scholar

31 Nacional, Biblioteca, Livro Primeiro do Governo do Brasil, 1607–1633 (1958).Google Scholar

32 de Brito Freire, Francisco, Nova Lusitania, Historia da Guerra Brasilica, 1675, Book VII, 525n.; also R.I.H.G.B. (1841), III, 153n.Google Scholar

33 ‘A Situacão do Negro sob o Dominio Hollandes’, in Novos Estudos Afro-Brasileiros (1937), II, 217.Google Scholar

34 Vansina, Jan, ‘The Foundation of the Kingdom of Kasanje’, JAH, IV/3, 1963, 370.Google Scholar

35 de Freitas, Mario Martins, Reino Negro de Palmares (1954), I, 266 and 278.Google Scholar

37 See Ravenstein's, E. G. ‘A Sketch of the History of Angola’, published together with The Strange Adventures of Andrew Batteli of Leigh (1901), 167–8.Google Scholar

37 Strange Adventures, 1–87.

38 Da Nobrega to Tome de Sousa (5 July, 1559), lines 831–55, in Cartas dos Primeiros Jesuitas do Brasil (1954), III, 101, edited by Serafiin Leite.

39 Historia, Book VIII (1880), 235.

40 ‘Report’, H.A.H.R. (1949), 523.

41 Freyre (1956), 301; Mauro (1960), 153. Taunay, Affonso de E. dates the letter to 1648 in vol. VIII (1946) of his Historia Geral das Bandeiras Paulistas, with pp. 37–169 devoted to Palmares.Google Scholar

42 See Rinchon, Dieudonné, La Traite et l'Esclavage des Congolais par les Européens (1929), 59–80; and Luiz Vianna Filho, O Negro na Bahia (1946), for appropriate tables.Google Scholar

43 Caspar Barleus, Nederlandsch Brazil onder het bewind van Graaf Johan Maurtiz (1923), translated from Latin by S. P. L'Honore Naber. I am indebted to Mr. Bruce Fetter of the University of Wisconsin for his translation of the Dutch text pertinent to Palmares.

44 Nieuhof, Johan, ‘Voyage and Travels into Brazil and the East Indies’, in Churchill, A. & Churchill, J. (eds.), Collection of Voyages and Travels (1704), II, 1–369.Google Scholar Taunay (1946), VIII, 55, implies heavy borrowing from Barleus' (1647) Rerum per octenium in Brasilia.

45, 46 Barleus (1923), 315.

47, 48 Barleus (1923), 370. Baro left a subsequent Relation du Voyage … au Pays des Tapuies (3 April–14 July 1647), translated from the Dutch by Moreau, P. (Paris, 1651).Google Scholar

49–52 Diario, Carneiro (1958), 255–8.

53 de Reis, Val et al. to Overseas Council (6 May 1681), Ennes (1938), 136.Google Scholar

54 de Reis, Val et al. to Overseas Council (6 May 1968), Ennes (1938), 135.Google Scholar

55 Relacão das Guerras, Carnerio (1958), 202.

56 Relacão das Guerras, Carnerio (1958), 203–4.

57 Historia (1880), Book VIII, 236.

58 Collection of Voyages (1704), II, 8.

59 a.-f.de Cadornega, A. de O., Historia Geral dos Guerras Angolanas (1942 ed.), III, 235, 249, 172, 186 and 240–1 and Furtado map of 1790/16°–17° Lat.;Google Scholar L. M. J. Visconde de Paiva Manso, Historia do Congo—Documentos (1877), 176–7 and 283–5; Jan Vansina, Personal Communication (30 January 1964); Lagae, C. R., La Langue des Azande, III (1925), 145–175Google Scholar (Zumba = one of the group and consensus; elected ruler; Subusupu hara vura = forged weapon of war). g. Probably Araticum of the Arapua mountains in Pernambuco. h. James L. Taylor, A Portuguese-English Dictionary (1958), 40.

60 Parry, J. H. and Sherlock, P. M., A Short History of the West Indies (1963), 14 and 39.Google Scholar

61 Ramos (1939), 109–16. Pilar, in the district of Alagoas, was formerly Aloea or Cariri.

62 Sotto-Maior to Overseas Council (8 August 1685), in Ennes (1938), 142.

63 Southey (1819), III, 24.

64 O Quilombo (1958), 62.

65 Pitta (1880), 237.

66 ‘Bando do Governador Fernāo de Souza Coutinho acerca de armas proibidas—Pamares’, in Carneiro (1958), 227–8.

67 Condicões e Capitulos, Ennes (1938), 24.

68 Ramos (1939), 64.

69 Freitas (1954), I, 291.

70 ‘Carta do Governador Fernāo de Souza Coutinho’ (1 June 1671), Ennes (1938), 133.

71 de Oliveira Freire, F. F., Historia Territorial do Brazil (1906), 6–106.Google Scholar

72 O Quilombo (1958), 76.

73 Expansão Geographica do Brasil Colonial (1935), 17–171.

74 Ennes (1949), 212.

75 ‘Bando do Governador Fernão de Souza Coutinho (4 September 1672)’, Carneiro (1958), 231.

76 ‘Relacão das Guerras’, Carneiro (1958), 219.

77 ‘Relacão das Guerras’, Carneiro (1958), 221.

78 Rodrigues (1945), 146.

79 ‘João da Fonesca pede a Camara de Alagoas mantimentos para a tropa estacionada nos arredores dos Palmares (26 January 1680)’, Carneiro (1958), 244–5.

80 ‘Relacão das Legoas de Terra’, Documento †8, Ennes (1938), 153.

81 ‘Bando do sargento-mor Manuel Lopes charmando a obediencia o capitão Zambi dos Palrnares (26 March 1680)’, Carneiro (1958), 247.

82 Ibid.

83 Ennes (1949), 202.

84 ‘Relacão das Guerras’, Carneiro (1958), 206.

85 Caetano de Melo e Castro to Overseas Council (18 February 1694), Ennes (1938), 195.

86 ‘Quantia despendida pela Carnara de Alagoas corn a guerra nos Palinares (20 July 1680’, Carneiro (1958), 248.

87 Quoted by Ennes (1949), 205.

88 November 1685, Ennes (1949), 204; translation here is Ennes' own.

89 The Palmares ‘Republic’ (1949) 200–16.

90 Rodrigues (1945), 137.