At the end of the American Civil War, disillusioned Confederate loyalists struggled to accept the reality of a Union victory. Seeing the destruction of their livelihoods, and determined to maintain their lifestyles, as many as 20,000 left the U.S. Their destination? Brazil.
In 1865, Brazil was still very much a slaveholding state. It has been estimated that some 40% of those victimized by the Atlantic slave trade ended up working in Brazilian sugarcane fields. For some dejected Confederates, it may have seemed like a paradise.
Brazilian emperor Dom Pedro II, recognizing a chance to benefit economically from the cotton industry disruption in the US, began a campaign to encourage Southerners to come to Brazil - and buy land for as little as 22 cents an acre. Thousands took up that offer.
Colonel William Norris is considered the founding father of the Confederados. A former Alabama senator, he went to Brazil, purchasing 3 slaves and 500 acres of land. By April 1866, he was engaged in a letter campaign to convince others to join back in the US to join him.
Within just a few years, there were multiple Confederate settlements with hundreds of families. They kept their customs - Southern cooking, Protestant Christianity, English language, etc. They generally sought to avoid cultural integration.
Fortunately, the Southerners failed to revive & sustain their plantation system of agriculture in Brazil. They struggled to afford to purchase enough slaves to make the system profitable, and began to fail financially, or die out. In 1888, Brazil abolished slavery.
Searching for the "good", one of the few upsides of these colonies were the innovations they brought with them that improved the lives of regular Brazilians - metal-tipped plows, tools, medical innovations, railroad technologies, etc.
In sum, the legacy of the Confederados (as well as the Confederacy & the slave trade in general) is complicated, and one that continues to drive tensions in many parts of the world. It as an interesting piece of history worth understanding within that context.
Additional reading & sources: The Lost Colony of the Confederacy (Volume 69) (Williams-Ford Texas A&M University Military History Series)
https://allthatsinteresting.com/confederados
Full credit to the authors of all sources above!
