Palmares and Cucaú

Palmares was the largest and longest-lived maroon community in Brazil, surviving for most of the seventeenth century. Celebrated in statues, carnival floats, feature films, novels, and commemorated in Brazil through Black Consciousness Day, Palmares has become a symbol of freedom and resistance. Renowned Brazilian historian Silvia Hunold Lara offers a panoramic retelling of the history of Palmares, situating the kingdom within a greater trans-Atlantic context and illuminating the perspectives of its freed —and subsequently reenslaved—inhabitants. Now available for the first time in English, the award-winning Palmares and Cucaú is a triumph of archival research and a sophisticated reflection on the work of the historian.

Delving into new documents and reinterpreting existing literature, Lara immerses readers in the political culture of the second half of the seventeenth century. She examines peace negotiations and treaties to show how Africans in both Africa and Brazil asserted their political autonomy and navigated the nuances of resistance to colonial rule, and how their choices shaped the history of slavery in Brazil. Palmares and Cucaú presents a fresh and much-needed account that brings to light the perspectives of the enslaved and the paths they sought towards freedom.