On a Sunday of rest in 1662, three enslaved men from today’s Guinea- Bissau disrupted the dancing and drumming on a sugar hacienda along the northern coast of Peru. Witnesses reported that these enslaved men, who were known as brans, demanded that a group of criollo and other African men (born in west or southwestern Africa) cease to play. One of the brans confessed at trial that he and his companions wanted to play and had been rebuffed by the American-born criollo owner of the drum.1 As a result of this rejection, the three spoke their language together and destroyed the drum. Then they returned later to assault the drummers and kill the owner of the instrument. Seeking restitution for their wounded and murdered criollo slaves, slaveholders filed a criminal suit against the brans. The African origins of the accused were not significant to the slaveholders who took legal action to recover the value of their human property. Nevertheless, the three enslaved men acted collectively, suggesting their diasporic affinities.
