Tróia negra

"Narrative relates attack of Portuguese colonizers on the Quilombo de Palmares, a self-sufficient farm worked mainly by former slaves who escaped from sugarcane plantations in 17th-century Brazil. Located in a region between Pernambuco and Alagoas, the farm grew to a population of 30,000; all of its inhabitants eventually were killed in one of the cruelest massacres of blacks during Brazil's colonial period. Zumbi, a Brazilian black born in the Quilombo, sustained farm's defense for years as a military strategist without equal. His heroic resistance is remembered with a holiday in his honor on Nov. 19, the date of his death (1695). Novel provides a fictional framework for these and other historical facts"--Handbook of Latin American Studies, v. 58.