Growing from small bands of escaped enslaved people in the early 1600s into a confederation of fortified villages spread across roughly 200 miles of Brazilian backcountry, Palmares became the largest and longest-surviving maroon settlement in the Americas, with a population historians estimate reached between 11,000 and 20,000 at its peak. Organized under elected leaders and later a hereditary chief, Palmares blended African, Indigenous, and Portuguese cultural and agricultural practices and withstood repeated Dutch and Portuguese military campaigns for nearly a century. Its final military leader, Zumbi, refused Portuguese peace terms and continued resistance until Palmares fell in 1694; Zumbi was captured and executed the following year. November 20, the anniversary of his death, is now observed nationally in Brazil as Black Consciousness Day, and Palmares remains the country's foremost symbol of Black resistance to slavery.