Rebel Slaves, Maroons, and Deserters: Slave Resistance in the Border of Brazil and Río de la Plata in the Nineteenth Century

South America has gone through important changes in the first decades of the nineteenth century. The Portuguese and Spanish empires have faced a serious crisis, which paved the way for the independence movements. Between 1811 and 1828, a cycle of wars and military conflicts, known as the Wars of Cisplatina, took place in the border of Brazil and Río de la Plata.
This situation has provided a new perspective for slave resistance in the Brazilian southern borderlands. The conflicts have created opportunities for slaves to run away many times across the border. Some of them have joined the Uruguayan army, which promised manumission in exchange of military service. Other slaves, along with deserters, roamed the region surviving on temporary jobs and thefts. Small maroon communities (quilombos) have also emerged at that time, gathering a few runaway slaves who maintained contacts with freedmen and other slaves which were still working in the farms and cattle ranches. In this paper, I analyze the role of runaway slaves and the formation of maroon communities in the Brazilian southern borderlands, in the first half of the nineteenth century. I discuss how the frontier condition and the military conflicts have shaped the slave resistance in the region. I expect that these discussions contribute to understand the intricate connections between the Atlantic slavery and the emergence of national states in South America.