Confederados

The Confederados are a cultural sub-group in the nation of Brazil. They are the descendants of Confederate soldiers who fled to Brazil with their families after the American Civil War.

The Original Confederados

At the end of the American Civil War, Emperor Dom Pedro II of Brazil sent recruiters into the American South to recruit experienced cotton farmers for his poor nation. Dom Pedro offered the potential immigrants subsidies and tax breaks. General Robert E. Lee advised Southerners not to flee to South America but many ignored his advice and set out to establish a new life away from the destruction of war. Many Southerners who took the Emperor's offer had lost their land during the war, were unwilling to live under a conquering army, or simply did not expect an improvement in the South's economic position. In addition, Brazil would not outlaw slavery until 1888 which increased its appeal as a destination not likely to be judgmental of the new immigrants. However, most did not revert to large-scale, slave-intensive agriculture. Most of the immigrants were from the states of Alabama, Texas, Louisiana, Georgia, and South Carolina.

It is unknown just how many immigrants came to Brazil as refugees from the war but estimates are that as many as 10,000 moved. Of those 10,000, as many as 60 percent either returned to the American South as conditions improved there or perished from tropical diseases, leaving upwards of 4,000 permanent immigrants.

The immigrants settled in various places in Brazil ranging from the urban areas of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo to the northern Amazon region. But most of the Confederados settled in the area around present-day Americana, Brazil near São Paulo which is a shortened version of the name Vila dos Americanos. This was the name it was given by natives in the region due to its American population.

The first original Confederados known to arrive was Colonel William H. Norris of Alabama. The colony at Americana is sometimes called the "Norris Colony".

Dom Pedro's program was judged a success for both the immigrants and the Brazilian government. The settlers brought with them modern agricultural techniques and new crops such as watermelon, corn, and pecans that soon spread amongst the native Brazilian farmers. Some foods of the American South also crossed over and became part of general Brazilian culture such as chess pie, vinegar pie, and southern fried chicken.

The original Confederados continued many elements of American culture and established the first Baptist churches in Brazil. They also established public schools and provided education to their female children which was unusual in Brazil at the time. The Confederados also founded Colégio Internacional in Campinas and the Escola Americana in São Paulo to provide higher education to their children. The Confederados surprisingly allowed blacks to attend their schools and learn to read and write which was considered somewhat scandalous at the time.

Descendants of the immigrants

The original generation of Confederados remained an insular community, but by the second generation most of the families had intermarried with native Brazilians. Descendants of the Confederados increasingly spoke the Portuguese language and identified themselves as Brazilian. As the area around Americana turned increasingly to the production of sugar cane and society became more mobile the Confederados began to lose their connection with the land. Today only a few descendant families still live on the original land owned by their ancestors. The descendants of the original Confederados are mostly scattered throughout Brazil but maintain the headquarters of their descendant organization at Americana.

The descendants still foster a connection with their history through the Fraternity of American Descendants, a descendant organization dedicated to preserving the unique mixed culture. The Confederados also have an annual festival, called the Festa Confederada which is dedicated to showcasing their history. The festival is marked by Confederate flags, traditional dress of Confederate uniforms and hoop skirts, food of the American south with a Brazilian flair, and dances and music popular in the American south during the antebellum period. The descendants maintain an affection for the Confederate flag even though they all consider themselves completely Brazilian. Modern Confederados distance themselves from any of the racial controversies and some have voiced nervousness about being associated with modern pro-Confederate movements in the US.

In Brazil the Confederate flag has not previously had the racial stigma that has been attached to it in the United States. Most of the descendants are of mixed race and reflect the varied racial categories that make up Brazilian society in their physical appearance. In recent years some controversy has arisen as Brazilians have become more aware of the controversies in the US. Recently the Brazilian residents of Americana, now of primarily Italian-descent, have removed the Confederate flag from the city's crest citing the fact that Confederados now make up only 10 percent of the city's population.

Some Confederados have travelled to the United States at the invitation of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, an American descendant's organization, to visit Civil War battlefields, attend reenactments, or see where their ancestors lived in the US.

The center of Confederado culture is the Campo Cemetery in Americana where most of the original Confederados from the region were buried. Due to their Protestant religion they established their own cemetery. The Confederado community has also established a Museum of Immigration at the nearby town of Santa Bárbara D'Oeste to present the history of Brazilian immigration and highlight its benefits to the nation.

In 1972 Governor Jimmy Carter of Georgia visited the city of Americana and visited the grave of his wife Rosalyn's great-uncle who was one of the original Confederados.

Sociological aspects

The Confederados have been mostly ignored over the years, but in recent years some limited studies have been conducted on the influence the Confederado immigration had on Brazil and Latin America as a whole.

The Conferados have been the focus of a few books, The Confederados : Old South Immigrants in Brazil edited by Cyrus B. Dawsey, and The Lost Colony of the Confederacy by Eugene C. Harter. They are also included in Lost White Tribes: Journeys Among the Forgotten by Riccardo Orizio and Avril Bardoni which relates the stories of several such cultural artifacts left behind in the third world as colonialism ended. The Confederados were also the subject of a 1998 American Heritage report. ("The Deepest South." American Heritage 49(2), April 1998. Pages 84-95).

Auburn University maintains a special collection of material related to the Confederado immigration including correspondence, memoirs, genealogies, and newspaper clippings related to the original immigrants especially the family of Colonel Norris.