Palmares, the largest and longest-lived maroon community in Brazil, survived for about a century, and although long mostly ignored by that nation's historians, it became in the twentieth century not only a subject of historical interest but a symbol of heroic resistance against slavery and of the importance and persistence of African culture in Brazil. Celebrated in statues, carnival floats, feature films, and novels, the death in 1695 of Zumbi, Palmares's last leader, has been commemorated in Brazil each November 20 since 1978 as the Day of Black Consciousness, an event memorialized by some states and about a thousand cities but still not a national holiday.
This book, by one of Brazil's leading historians of slavery, presents a judicious summary and penetrating critique of the history and historiography of Palmares, as well as a detailed discussion of the principal documentary sources for its history. It is also a challenging reproach...
