Research on and reports from enslaved people dating back to 1848 point to the existence of a quilombo between the states of Espírito Santo and Rio de Janeiro, on the banks of the Moquim River, featuring a 'large quantity of senzala constructions, homes, prayer spaces, a bell, cemetery and blacksmiths'. ${ }^{9}$ Ironworkers, and particularly African ironworkers, therefore played an important role in many slave resistance movements in the Americas as a result of their strategic involvement in the production of tools and arms (Ringquist, 2008, p. 14-15). In Brazil, they were also involved in various uprisings and plans for revolt (Dos Santos Gomes, 2006).  
It is important to mention that various African microsocieties from the Kongo regions in Central Africa viewed ironworkers as special figures, attributing to them spiritual powers. The origin myth for the kingdom of Ndongo linked its powers to those of ironwork. Some areas of West Africa also believed ironworkers to be figures holding special powers (Balandier, 1968, pp. 108-113, pp. 224-225).  
Excavations in the senzala belonging to the Santa Clara farm in the Paraíba Valley revealed a concentration of iron slag in an area measuring around 2 metres by 0.5 metres; this was intentionally buried beside the front wall of the space (Symanski and dos Santos Gomes, 2016). This finding points to the use of Central African practices adopted in the Iron Age, a conclusion supported by excavations which Vitor Oliveira Jorge carried out in 1973 in a fortified village in the province  
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[^0]:    8 See the insurrection process transcribed in Pinaud, 1987, pp. fl. 42, 44, 49, 49 v and 54.
9 APERJ, Fundo SPP, Collection 166, document 12 A, Letter by Claudino do Couto sent to the deputy of Campos Police Force, 2 November 1848.