The article examines the relationships between the transatlantic slave trade for Brazil, manumissions patterns and the creation of opportunities for collective slave resistance (formation of maroons communities and large revolts), from the end of the XVIIth century to the first half of the XIXth century. Based on the theoretical propositions of Patterson and Kopytoff, it suggests an interpretation for the Brazilian slave system in the long duration without dissociating the slave condition from the freedman one and the slave trade from the manumissions.
slavery; Brazilian history; transatlantic slave trade; manumissions; slave resistance