Confederates in the South. Way south in Brazil at Santa Barbara d'Oeste
Each year they hold their Southern heritage festivals. Descendants of Os Confederados, they play the part at these events. Visitors will find the men dressed in Johnny Reb uniforms, the women as Southern Belles. The visitor will notice a certain irony in terms of what the South stood for. Some of these men and women are of mixed parentage. Some of them still speak English with a Southern accent, although most speak only Portuguese.
A band plays Dixie while the the gentlemen and ladies eat fried chicken, then later dance. Gentlemen bow to ladies, offer their arm, then, her hand daintily hooked inside his elbow, he escorts her onto the dance floor. The band begins and they dance quadrilles, first maybe a Schottische then a Mazourka.
One gentleman, with the unlikely name Frederico, explains that they are trying to preserve their culture. 23 years old, he is dressed as a Confederate general.
Few in the states remember today the Great Confederate Migration after the Civil War, but, fearful of their fates under Yankee rule, thousands fled for places below the United States border. Some emigrated to Mexio, others went to Brazil, where an estimated 6,000 people emigrated.
Brazil lured the most Confederates because it encouraged immigration even before war's end with offers of land ownership, and help with transportation. They were encouraged to seek a new life in a country where slavery remained legal and cotton could again become king.
Passage cost $20 to $30, with a voyage over several weeks. Families brought tents, light weight furniture, farming supplies, seeds, and provisions to last six months. Land was offered at 22 cents an acre, with four years credit, and rich farmland was promised.
Former slave owners, women who had never cooked a meal or washed a garment were cooking and washing over an open campfire. Malaria was prevalent, and a drought ruined most of the first crops in the colony of Rio Doce.
Some of them settled in Americana, Brazil, others in Santa Barbara d'Oeste. They went elsewhere as well: Campinnas, Sao Paulo, Juquia, New Texas, Xiririca, and Rio de Janeiro. One colony settled in Santarem, in the north deep up the Amazon River. In such towns Confederate flags fly today without controversy.
In a graveyard outside Americana, 400 Confederate settlers lie buried under pine, eucalyptus, mango, and palm trees. Jimmy Carter's wife, Rosalyn, has an ancestor buried there, W.W. Wise, her great-uncle. Near his, another tombstone epitaph reads Roberto Stell Steagull--once a Rebel, Twice a Rebel, & Forever a Rebel. Born 1899, died 1985.
Pictures of a festival
