Confederate Exodus

The crisis of Confederate memory in the interior of São Paulo, Brazil

“…After the US Civil War formally ended in 1865, ending chattel slavery in the United States, some four to ten thousand Confederate soldiers and their families left the defeated Confederacy and boarded ships bound for Brazil where slavery was still legal, no significant abolitionist movement had been organized, and the institution would not be abolished for another 23 years (Brito, 2015; Dawsey and Dawsey, 1995; Harter, 1985; Jarnagin, 2008; Marcus, 2021; Silva, 2015). The degree to which the existence of slavery motivated the Confederate exodus to Brazil has been the subject of much debate and disagreement within the historiographic literature, with some American historians arguing that it played little or no role (Dawsey and Dawsey, 1995; Harter, 1985; Jarnagin, 2008) and with some Brazilian historians and political economists showing that it did indeed play a significant role through analyses of Confederate diaries and letters written home (Brito, 2015) as well as letters written to Brazilian consulate offices inquiring about emigration opportunities (Silva, 2015).…”

“…The degree to which the existence of slavery motivated the Confederate exodus to Brazil has been the subject of much debate and disagreement within the historiographic literature, with some American historians arguing that it played little or no role (Dawsey and Dawsey, 1995; Harter, 1985; Jarnagin, 2008) and with some Brazilian historians and political economists showing that it did indeed play a significant role through analyses of Confederate diaries and letters written home (Brito, 2015) as well as letters written to Brazilian consulate offices inquiring about emigration opportunities (Silva, 2015). Marcus (2021) shows that other social and environmental forces like immigration policies, and agro-economic and commercial opportunities—all importantly mediated by global racial formations and hemispheric settler colonialism—shaped the Confederate exodus from the US South to Brazil.…”

“…This would become the most successful (i.e. longest lasting) Confederate settlement to take hold in Brazil, although there were other settlements spread throughout the country (Marcus, 2021). Confederado settlers made advances in education, establishing several “American schools” in the region, and using the Bible, taught English reading comprehension widely using innovative pedagogical techniques (Marcus, 2021).…”

“…In the aftermath of the Civil War, several thousand ex-Confederates emigrated from the United States to several Latin American countries (Hill, 1935; Sutherland, 1985), including Mexico (Rolle, 1992; Wahlstrom, 2020), Cuba, Honduras (Simmons, 2017), Peru, Chile, Venezuela, and Brazil (Dawsey and Dawsey, 1995; Harter, 1985; Jarnagin, 2008). This was the largest out-migration of white people from the United States in recorded history (Marcus, 2021). Rather than face the possibility of Reconstruction in the US South and the incorporation of the formerly enslaved into Southern life and politics, many former Confederates chose to pack their bags and start again elsewhere.…”

“…As a result, thousands of Confederate emigrants chose Brazil as the place where they would start their lives over. Exactly how many Confederates emigrated remains up for debate, but 4,000–10,000 is commonly accepted among scholars (Marcus, 2021; Silva, 2015). Figure 1 shows known locations where Confederates migrated to Brazil and founded settlements based on the 2015 book Soldado Descansa!…”