"ACW Commemorations in... Brazil?" Topic

It had all the trappings of a down-home country fair somewhere well below the Mason-Dixon line: Lynyrd Skynyrd medleys, mile-long lines for fried chicken, barbeque and draft beer, and a plethora of Confederate flags emblazoning everything from belt buckles to motorcycle vests to trucker caps.

But Sunday's party marking the 150th anniversary of the end of the American Civil War took about 5,000 miles (8,000 kilometers) south of the South, in a rural Brazilian town colonized by families fleeing Reconstruction.

For many of the residents of Santa Barbara d'Oeste and neighboring Americana in Brazil's southeastern Sao Paulo state, having Confederate ancestry is a point of pride that's celebrated in high style at the annual "Festa dos Confederados," or "Confederates Party" in Portuguese…

link

That's a new one on me.

They couldn't handle defeat, so they fled to the last slave state in the Americas? Who didn't know that?

More people than you might think. That unreconstructed Confederates went to Brazil where their descendants still live is not a widely known event, even here in the deep South.

Jim

They couldn't handle defeat,…

Or maybe they had nothing left…homes destroyed, lives and land ruined, and/or gone…and had no desire to live under an "occupying force" while being "reconstructed" at the tip of a bayonet…

Or maybe they had nothing left…homes destroyed, lives and land ruined, and/or gone…and had no desire to live under an "occupying force" while being "reconstructed" at the tip of a bayonet…

So what you're saying is, they couldn't handle being reduced to the same economic level as the former slaves? Almost as if slavery was a bad thing…

Hundreds of Bonapartists left France for America after Waterloo, including both Joseph Bonaparte and Grouchy. A number of others came to the Americas after revolts in Germany and Hungary failed in the 1840s. So why is it surprising that Confederates would have chosen to relocate after their revolution failed? BTW at least one Confederate general served in the Egyptian army after the war.

Tell It, Rebelyell! Spot on…
Peter (Yes, I have Confederate ancestors)
Edit: Oh Christ, I should have known it was Faux News…

So what you're saying is, they couldn't handle being reduced to the same economic level as the former slaves? Almost as if slavery was a bad thing…

Nope…that's not what I was saying…

You have a remarkable ability, to put words you want to hear in other peoples mouths….

Nope…that's not what I was saying…

What you did say was that the war reduced some people to poverty by destroying everything they had, like plantation houses and hordes of slaves and many many acres of farmland (which was not a problem for the dirt farmers in my family because they didn't have anything to begin with, like the vast majority of Southerners). So is it just coincidental that the destruction brought them down to the same level as the former slaves?

Extracted from the original article: "The fact that slavery was still legal in Brazil, where it was outlawed only in 1888, may also have been a factor, though Clabough said it was doubtful many of the 'Confederados' would have been able to afford slaves either in the U.S. or in Brazil".

That makes a lot of sense to me, obvious as it seems that Southern land owners were a minority, an elite, while most of the southerners reduced to misery by war were already poor before it started.

I knew about this. Every few years some enterprising reporter "discovers" the Brazilian Confederates.

The former Confederates and their decedents were famous in Brazil for being the best mule breeders.

I know these people quite well, having lived in Americana in the 1980s. Here are some facts that the article doesn't mention…

1) All those trappings of "southern culture" (Lynyrd Skynyrd, etc.) are a recent invention. The ceremonies I attended back in the 1980s were small and generally quiet. they certainly had none of the hullaballoo described by the article. Apparently, since the 1980s, certain people in Americana have decided that money can be made ramping up a "Southern culture" fair and hyping it as authentic.

2) The original colonists were a grab-bag from all over the U.S. The largest single group were civil war vets from both sides of the conflict, but there was also a large Republican Methodist missionary contingent, as well as some German and Irish immigrants from the U.S. and even some ex-slaves. The reasons these Americans came to Brazil (and New Zealand, South Africa and Chile as well) had less to do with the South losing the Civil War and more to do with frontier immigration in the U.S. suffering a blip (for a series of reasons) in the years following the ACW.

3) The immigrants were prohibited by Brazilian law from owning slaves, as were all immigrants at the time. Moving to Brazil was thus not a means of continuing slavery.

4) The original Confederate colonies failed. Ironically, one of them ended up in the hands of an American ex-slave who did make a successful go of it, running a lumber mill on the colony's old land, long after the white immigrants moved on. The region around Campinas where Americana sprung up had already attracted a small group of American missionaries, so those refugees from the failed colonies who did not go back to the U.S. were naturally attracted to this region.

5) The colony around Campinas probably would have failed too if it weren't for the successful importation of Georgia Rattler watermelons to Brazil. The Americanos made these the base of their economy, supplying the burgeoning city of São Paulo. Today, their cultural contributions to Brazil can be resumed in three things: modern denistry (which the Americanos introduced and dominated for several decades), modern, Great Plains-style steel plows and watermelons.

So here's hoping those revelers do their fore-bearers justice and consume lots of watermelon at the new Disney-style celebration of "southern" culture.

(Dear John: if you have a source on that mule breeding thing, I'd love to see it. I doubt it, however, because mule trains were the most common way of transporting goods inside of Brazil from the 17th to the late 19th century. But anything's possible, I guess!)

It never ceases to amaze me as to how much you can learn on TMP. And how much controversy there is on so many subjects. Its why I enjoy reading all the postings.

Or maybe they had nothing left…homes destroyed, lives and land ruined, and/or gone…and had no desire to live under an "occupying force" while being "reconstructed" at the tip of a bayonet…

And without there slaves who would make their mint julips? Poor dears.

Charles- Great info! I had known some about the "Brazilian Confederates", but your posting fills in a lot blanks (and corrects some misconceptions). Thanks for posting that.

Charles:

Thanks for the info.

I have been looking into connections between the Paraguayan War and the American Civil War. Surprisingly few veterans served, though there were a some notable ones.

I will have to dig into my notes to find the source for the mule breeding reputation. They did not originate the use of mules of course, but apparently they were very good at producing them for an existing market.