Zumbi

Timeline

1. c. 1655–1678Serra da Barriga · Serra da BarrigaBorn around 1655 in the Palmares mountain region. Later biographies claim he was captured by colonists as a child, baptized, and taught to read, escaping back to the quilombo around age fifteen to fight under Ganga Zumba. Such episodes cannot be verified item by item in 17th-century Portuguese documents, but it is certain he was an important military figure at Palmares by the 1670s.
2. 1678–1694Macaco, Serra da Barriga · PalmaresIn 1678 the governor of Pernambuco offered Ganga Zumba peace terms requiring Palmares residents to move to the more easily monitored Cucau River valley. Zumbi refused to leave the mountains, forming the pro-war faction. After Ganga Zumba's death around 1680, he became the last supreme leader, continuing raids on plantations and resisting punitive expeditions.
3. 1694–1695Serra da Barriga · AlagoasOn February 6, 1694, bandeirantes and colonial militia under Domingos Jorge Velho and others captured the fortified main settlement of Macaco, dissolving Palmares' centralized polity. Zumbi led remnants in continued guerrilla warfare until his capture and killing on November 20, 1695, beheaded and displayed to dispel rumors of his immortality. Scattered runaway settlements remained in the mountains, but the unified quilombo nation was dead.