In fact Mocambos and Quilombos are two words used interchangeably.

    That happens, it seems, because Mocambos were some rough huts (cabins) or a small set of them. 

    As they couldn´t know how many people there were in a given "mocambo", it is possible that the number of these huts were a few or ammount to sixty in some cases, so they used the word ''mocambo" anyway, at that time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mocambos

The mocambos (from mocambo, literally Huts) were village-sized communities mainly of runaway slaves in colonial Brazil, during the Portuguese rule.

A mocambo differed from a quilombo in size - a quilombo, like the Quilombo dos Palmares, might embrace many distinct mocambos. The terms were not always used consistently, however.

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    The term, developed into or have been used interchangeably tough with the word "quilombos", when it has the meaning of a hideout for community of slave escapees at the eighteenth-nineteenth century in Brazil.

    The average joe at the streets is more prone to know about quilombos (wich they learn at the school in early times), and historians use both terms.  Whereas to many people the word "mocambo" is foreign to them altogether.

    In these centuries, both were used for the Portuguese and sugar cane farmers, with the sense of a more well-organized settlement, then village, that had leaders/kings, a hierarquical structure.  Sometimes and in some places, their occupants would  protect the escapees and take them in, sometimes even freed them from the "bandeiras" (groups formed by bounty hunters, supposed to bring them back to re-enslavement)

    Quilombo turned into a fixed expression because of the well known case of Quilombo of Palmares, located way into the far remote region in the state of Alagoas.

     At this time, Quilombos (or Mocambos if you wish) were not tolerated anymore; the

farmers and the brand new elite (of Portuguese descent) figured out that with the eslaves made 60 p.c. of the population (or more), and now there was a increasingly high percentage of "runaways".    Not to mention the freed ones.    

      So, with the reasoning of that these Mocambos or Quilombos would disrupt the economy, the production and and endanger towns´s security, they decided they had to put an end to them.

      Even so, there are some towns that had its begginning from these communities, many near Salvador.

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http://aulete.uol.com.br/site.php?mdl=aulete_digital&op=loadVerbete&pesquisa=1&palavra=quilombo

(qui.lom.bo)

sm.

1. Bras. Hist. Lugar escondido ou fortificado em que se refugiavam escravos fugidos.

[F.: Do quimb. kilombo 'união ]

Quilombo dos Palmares
1 Hist. Bras. Quilombo em Alagoas, do qual escravos negros fugidos fizeram um Estado, no sé. XVII. [Tb. apenas Palmares.]

http://www.dicionarioinformal.com.br/mocambo/

2. Mocambo

Enviado por Dicionário inFormal (SP) em 04-08-2008

Canto, refúgio, esconderijo de escravos fugidos, na floresta; quilombo.
Conjunto de habitações miseráveis.
Choça ou abrigo dos vigilantes das lavouras. (Na definição de Jcques Raimundo. "Choça que os pretos construíam nas matas, para se esconderem quando fugidos.(Dicionário da Escravidão de Alaôr Eduardo Scisínio)

mocambos em Pernambuco.

3. Mocambo

Enviado por Iguaraçu (RS) em 19-03-2009

Habitação Miserável

Ele mora em mocambo

http://www.dicio.com.br/mocambo/

s.m. Bras. (NE) Tipo de habitação miserável muito frequente nas grandes cidades dessa região. Os mocambos são construídos sobre terrenos baldios e não preparados para a construção e, principalmente, sobre pântanos, formando conjuntos semelhantes às favelas.

Refúgio de escravos nas matas; quilombo.

Bras. (N) Cerrado ou moita, em que o gado se esconde.

Further readings: