Quilombos [Runaway Slave Villages] of the Amazon Valley in the 1850s: "A Sort of Enchanted Land"

[The following descriptions of remote quilombos in the region of the Amazon Valley and the several campaigns which the provincial government of Para launched against them are taken from three separate reports to the British Foreign Office by one Mr. Vines, who was British consul in Belem. This selection is clear evidence that some slaves managed to achieve permanent freedom by fleeing to a quilombo, especially in the huge jungle-covered regions of Maranhao, Para, and Amazonas. Sources: British and Foreign State Papers, Vol. XLIV (1853-1854), pp: 1241-1243; Class B. Correspondence with British Ministers and Agents in Foreign Countries and with Foreign - Ministers in England, Relating to the Slave Trade. From April 1, 1855, to March 31, 1856 (London, 1856); pp. 234-235; ibid. From April 1, 1855, to March 31, 1857 (London, 1857), p. 230]

JANUARY 28, 1854

There have been known to exist, for several years, settlements of runaway negroes; one at Santarem, about 1,300 miles from this port, where upwards of 1,000 fugitive slaves are located, amongst the mountains and swamps in the vicinity of the villages of Parinha and Monte Alegre, and near the town of Macapa, are encampments from whence fugitives easily escape to Cayenne. Within 60 miles of the city of Para [Belem] a settlement has been formed on the river Muju, from which a female slave was recovered a few weeks ago; she had escaped during the insurrection of 1835, and reappeared with a large family;- and within a circuit of 2 leagues of Para are many fugitive slaves.

The sites of these encampments appear to be carefully chosen to guard against a surprise attack. The fugitives are said to be industrious in the cultivation of rice, mandioca, and Indian corn,- and in the manufacture of charcoal. They make canoes and barcoes, or small sailing vessels, which are used for the interior trade. They carry on a traffic with the inferior class of tradesmen in the neighboring towns, exchanging the produce of their labor for certain necessaries, such as gunpowder and shot, cloth and soap, &c. Some of them are frequently known to venture into the city of Pari at night, where they have occasionally been taken and claimed by their owners, who endeavor to sell them, but find generally much difficulty in doing so, the freedom of their wandering life unfitting them for slavery.

The situation of these encampments being naturally difficult of access, and the connivance afforded the fugitives by parties trading with them, have rendered the repeated attempts to capture them abortive.

JANUARY 28, 1856

In reference to the settlements of fugitive slaves in the Amazonian districts, which I had the honor to mention to your Lordship in my annual Slave Trade Report, under date of 28th of January, 1854, as having baffled all attempts of the military authorities here to disturb them, I regret that I am obliged to report to your Lordship that they have recently succeeded in discovering two large encampments at Mucajubi and at the River Trombetas, and in capturing 45 slaves, who were brought to the prison of this city, and delivered to their owners or their heirs.

On the night of the 7th of September last, a detachment of forty soldiers, under the command of a Captain and Lieutenant, left Para to effect the destruction of the Mocambo (Settlement) of Mucajubi, in the district of Aycarau, about fourteen miles-from this city, it having been reported that the fugitive negroes encamped there, had attacked the canoes of several planters, and had committed depredations on some of the neighboring estates. The detachment disembarked secretly, and lay concealed in the woods near to the paths by which the fugitives were supposed to leave their settlements. One negro being captured, was forced to show the best pass by which to enter the lake or swamp on which the encampment of Mucajubi was situated, which occupied several hours in reaching, sometimes wading through water up to the waist, and occasionally being obliged to swim; on arriving at the first house, a discharge of fire-arms from it killed one soldier and wounded some others. The expedition then returned, having captured two negroes, but returned to the locality on the 11th of September, being reinforced by fifty soldiers and four officers, and thirty-two soldiers of the National Guard; with this company they succeeded in reaching the lake, on the banks of which the Settlements are situated, on which they embarked in small canoes, and after twenty-eight days' bush-fighting, they captured 45 fugitive slaves, took twenty-seven canoes belonging to the negroes, and destroyed seventeen houses, many of which are reported to have been substantially built dwellings. These Settlements, for they extended over two or three leagues, had never before been visited, except by fugitive slaves; they consisted of little villages, well enclosed and entrenched, containing a population roughly calculated at between 1,000 and 2,000, having large tracts of land under cultivation with the mandioca plant.

Another detachment of forty soldiers, under the command of a Captain, left Para to destroy the Quilombo of Trombetas, a famous Settlement, over fifty years old, and which hitherto had been deemed inaccessible to military enterprise, and looked upon by the slave population as a sort of enchanted land. The mouth of the Trombetas is about 450 miles distant from Para, and its source is said to be close to British Guiana; on the landing of this detachment, a captured negro gave such an account of the difficulties and dangers of the journey to this settlement, that thirty-three out of forty soldiers, refused to accompany their captain, and he and seven soldiers proceeded in search of it; after nine days' wandering through dense forests, they reached the settlement, which they found deserted and burned by the negroes, who had broken up their ovens and utensils for making farinha of mandioca. About three leagues from the Quilombo of Trombetas exists a tribe of white Indians, of the Uariquena nation, who being on friendly terms with the fugitive slaves, are supposed to have given them notice of the intended attack.