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| PALMARES: THE NEGRO NUMANTIA |
One of the most glorious achievements in
the history of the Iberian Peninsula was the long and desperate defence
of Numantia against the Roman legionaries sent to effect the
destruction of the city. When the beleaguered inhabitants could no
longer maintain themselves, owing to the shortage of food supplies,
they burned the city, and those who were not killed in battle with the
Romans committed suicide. Scipio Æmilianus, the Roman leader, entered
Numantia to find nothing but burning embers and piles of corpses.
This
incident has an almost exact parallel in the history of Brazil, only
this time the heroes were Negroes, defending the capital of one of
the earliest and one of the strangest Negro republics in the history of
the world. The Portuguese, who were the first to introduce Negro
slavery into Europe, did not long delay in carrying the institution to
their colony of Brazil. It was in 1574 that the first slave ship
reached there. Thereafter, great numbers of Negroes were brought,
especially to northern Brazil, in the equatorial belt, to work in the
profitable sugar fields. No region of the Americas was so accessible to
the slave trade, for the Brazilian coast juts out into the Atlantic
Ocean directly opposite the Gulf of Guinea in Africa, whence most of
the slaves were procured.
It is profitless here to go into the question
of the treatment of the slaves by their Portuguese masters. Some were
badly treated, and took the chance of flight to the interior forest
lands, rather than submit any longer. Various causes prompted yet
others to escape from the colonial plantations. Thus many a quilombo,
or Negro village of the forest, was formed. By far the most famous of
these was the quilombo of Palmares, whose history is the subject of
this article. In 1650, forty determined Negroes of the province of
Pernambuco, all of them natives of Guinea, rose against their masters,
taking as much as they could in the way of arms and provisions, and
fled to the neighboring forest. There they founded a quilombo on the
site of a well-known Negro village of earlier days, which the Dutch had
destroyed. The tale of their escape was told throughout the province,
with the result that it was not long before the population of the new
quilombo was greatly increased. Slaves and freemen were eager to join
their brethren in the forest. It seemed prudent, however, to go farther
away from the white settlements, lest the very strength of the Negro
town should invite annihilation or re-enslavement by the planters. Thus
it was that the inland site of Palmares, not far from present-day
Anadia, was chosen.
A town was founded, and all seemed well except for
one thing, an essential to permanence was lacking, for there were no
women. A detachment of Negroes was sent on the romantic mission of
procuring wives for the colony. This party marched to the nearest
plantations, and, without stopping to discriminate, took all the
women it could find, black, mulatto, and white. Palmares was now on a
secure footing indeed. At first, the inhabitants lived by a species of
banditry, robbing the whites whenever they could. Gradually, a more
settled type of life developed. The Negroes began to engage in
agriculture, and at length entered into something approximating
peaceful relations with the Portuguese settlements. Trade took the
place of warfare, although fear of the overgrown quilombo was perhaps
as much the motive on the part of the whites as the desire for profits.
A rustic republic of an admirable type was formed for the maintenance
of internal order and external safety.
Combining republican and
monarchical features, they elected a chief, or king, called the Zombe,
who ruled with absolute authority during the term of his life. The
right of candidacy was restricted to a group recognized as composing
the bravest men of the community. Any man in the state might aspire to
this dignity, provided he had Negro blood in his veins. There were
other officials, both of a military and of a civil character. In the
interests of good order, the Zombes made laws imposing the death
penalty for murder, adultery, and robbery. Slavery existed, and in this
respect there was a curious custom. Every Negro who had won his freedom
from the white man, by whatever method, as for example by a successful
flight to Palmares, remained a free man. Those who were captured while
in a state of slavery, however, became slaves in Palmares. Thus the
reward of freedom was offered to those who should escape from the
planters, and a punishment was held out to those who would not, or
could not, do so.
In course of time, the Negro republic expanded
until it included a number of towns. Palmares alone is said to have
had a population of 20,000, and the number of fighting men in the whole
republic was some 10,000. The capital city, Palmares, was surrounded by
wooden walls, made of the trunks of large trees. The city was entered
by means of three huge gates, on the tops of which were great
platforms, always well guarded. For nearly half a century the little
republic prospered. It was perhaps only natural that the Portuguese
settlers should wish to destroy it, for it represented an alien force
and an ever present danger, certainly so far as their profits from the
use of slave labor went. At any rate, in the year 1696, Governor
Caetano de Mello of Pernambuco decided upon an expedition against
Palmares. A strong force was sent, but it was met by the Negroes and
totally defeated. A veritable army of some 7,000 men was now gathered,
and placed under the command of a competent soldier named Bernardo
Vieira. This time, the Portuguese troops were well provided with
artillery, with which the Negro republic could not be expected to cope.
Palmares was reached, but it was in no mnood for surrender, and it was
necessary to begin a regular siege of the city. The defence was desperate. After the Portuguese artillery had breached the walls in three
places, their infantry attacked in force. They entered the city, but
had to take it, foot by foot. At last, the defenders came to the center
of Palmares, where a high cliff impeded further retreat. Death or
surrender were now the only alternatives.
Seeing that his cause was
lost beyond repair, the Zombe hurled himself over the cliff, and his
action was followed by the most distinguished of his fighting men. Some
prisoners were indeed taken, but it is perhaps a tribute to Palmares,
though a gruesome one, that they were all put to death; it was not safe
to enslave these men, despite the value of their labor. Thus passed
Palmares, the Negro Numantia, most famous and greatest of the Brazilian
quilombos.
Author: Charles E. Chapman - Assistant Professor of History,
University of California
Source: The Journal of Negro History, Vol.
3, No. 1 (Jan., 1918), pp. 29-32Published by: Association for the Study
of African American Life and History, Inc.Stable URL:
http://www.jstor.org/stable/2713791
