Zumbi dos Palmares was an Afro-Brazilian legend and symbol of resistance from Brazil’s colonial time. He was the leader of the quilombos, a community formed by fugitive slave farmers, Indians and poor whites. He officially became the chief of the Quilombo dos Palmares, located in Pernambuco, in 1680 after leading a civil war and defeating their current leader, Ganga Zumba. Zumbi resisted the Portuguese colonial oppression for 14 years until the expedition led by Domingos Jorge Velho destroyed the Palmares in 1694 (Diggs, pg 62-67, pr 1-18). However, there was no physical evidence of the Palmares, and the historical documents showed the invaders perspective of the events (Orser, pg 10, pr 3). Thus, the historiography of this area was characterized by the debate concerning the myths in the “official” history of Zumbi dos Palmares. Most historians argued that several aspects of these authoritarian events are myths, tools utilized to romanticize Zumbi’s image. However, few historians argued that some events were credible demonstrations of what actually took place in the Palmares (Lopes, pr 1). Both of these views were further explored in order to determine…show more content… Without actual physical evidence, historians had to evaluate and interpret documents with the perspectives of the oppressors. In addition, as an attempt to recuperate Zumbi’s image, writers tended to modify the history and ended up creating new perspectives. This illustrates literature's power of objectivity and subjectivity, which modified the “official” history (Coser, pg 630, pr 2). Therefore, due to a lack of evidence that supported the “official” history, one can state that it was not as official as it seemed, and as a result, it exposed several flaws and deficiencies in the sources that contributed to