Confederados Keep Dixie Alive Down South in Brazil

Reuters/yahoo.com ^ | Carlos A. DeJuana

[Cincinatus' Wife]

SANTA BARBARA D'OESTE, Brazil (Reuters) - A handful of Confederate soldiers are loitering about on a breezy, sun-kissed day, chatting up a bevy of southern belles.

The sounds of "Dixie" play in the background. The smell of fresh-baked biscuits and homemade fried chicken waft over a grassy field. And the red, white and blue Confederate flag flutters in the wind.

The antebellum scene could have come straight out of "Gone with the Wind," except that it is taking place somewhere more southern than the Deep South: Brazil.

"We're trying to preserve our culture," says Frederico Padoveze, a 23-year-old dressed like a Confederate general whose name belies his southern U.S. heritage.

Young Brazilians of the Fraternity of American Descendants group dance to Southern music at a Sunday brunch in Santa Barbara D'Oeste, interior of Sao Paulo state, September 14, 2003. At least four times a year, organized by the Fraternity of American Descendents, a group whose ancestors were Confederate immigrants to Brazil after the U.S. Civil War, get together at their cemetery to trade gossip, celebrate their roots and eat typically Southern food like fried chicken and biscuits. REUTERS/Paulo Whitaker

Like most of the 160 people who gathered on the outskirts of this town one recent Sunday, Padoveze is the descendant of a group of Americans who left their homes in the U.S. South after the Civil War.

Some died searching for better fortune in Brazil and many went back to America. But a small group overcame the perils of life in what was to them a strange, poor, tropical land and have become a small but important piece of its history.

"They wanted a new country, a new place to live," said Noemia Cullen Pyles of her ancestors, who are known as the Confederados in Brazil.

"Everybody's dream is to live in the United States. We wanted to leave," she said.

Indeed, the Confederados' exodus was one of the very few organized emigrations out of the United States, a country better known for receiving immigrants than producing them.

GOSSIP AND SOUTHERN CHOW

At least four times a year, a group known as the Fraternity of American Descendants gathers at a cemetery where their ancestors are buried to gossip, celebrate their roots and chow down on southern cooking.

Padoveze and his friends also put on a dance to tunes like "The Yellow Rose of Texas," and the group holds a church service in a small red brick chapel where the first Baptist ceremony in Brazil was organized in 1871.

Behind the church, the names on the tombstones chart a web of intermarriages that followed the initial settlements and helped knit the community together.

Like the United States, Brazil is a country founded largely by immigrants. The Portuguese arrived in 1500, and later so did swarms of European, Japanese, Jewish and Arab settlers.

By comparison, the U.S. presence is small.

Cyrus Dawsey, a professor of geography at Auburn University in Alabama who coauthored the book "The Confederados," estimates that between 5,000 and 7,000 southerners made their way to Brazil. About half went back.

Most of them were ordinary farmers or craftsmen worried about their prospects in the economic turmoil of the post-war South. Too poor to afford slaves in the United States, only a few bought them when they arrived in Brazil.

"There was a little bit of slave ownership in Brazil but it wasn't very important," Dawsey said.

"That's not to say they were abolitionists, but (slavery) just wasn't important to them."

Brazil did not abolish slavery until 1888, 23 years after the United States.

Eventually most of the immigrants headed to the interior of Sao Paulo state near a town later named after them: Americana. The cemetery is located outside a neighboring city, Santa Barbara d'Oeste, about two hours' drive northwest of Sao Paulo and where many of their descendants live.

Dawsey believes the Confederados' geographical isolation in Brazil and their Protestantism in a mostly Roman Catholic country may have initially helped them preserve more of their culture than other immigrant groups.

"PERFECTLY INTEGRATED"

But on a Sunday, many of those mulling around are fourth- or fifth-generation Confederados, and they say they are just like anybody else in Brazil.

"We're perfectly integrated," said Allison Jones, the Fraternity's official spokesman.

Indeed, just about everyone savoring fried chicken is speaking Portuguese and some don't speak English. Like Padoveze, whose Confederate ancestor married a black Brazilian slave, many have also lost their American last names and pale Anglo-Saxon complexion.

But then again, few people in Brazil fly the U.S., Brazilian and Confederate flags side by side at mealtime.

In the United States, the flying of the Confederate "Stars and Bars" flag has sparked numerous controversies as a symbol of the racial hatred institutionalized in the Confederate South.

But Cullen Pyles, the Fraternity's treasurer, said the Confederate flag has a different meaning for the group.

"She is a reminder of our ancestry," she says. "It doesn't represent racism or any of that to us."

Later on in the day, Padoveze is resting after having led his friends in a dance. He says his association with the Fraternity has helped him learn not only about U.S. history but about Brazil.

"One of the things I learned from Americans is to love your country," he says. "And I do love my country: Brazil."

[Tijeras_Slim]

ping

[Paul C. Jesup]

YOU HEAR THAT NAACP! Even if you kill every single White Southerner in the U.S., the culture will exist elsewhere.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

LOL

[stainlessbanner]

Facinating story. The South was diverse before diversity was cool.

Previous FR article on Confederados: Confederacy lives way down south of Dixie

[TomServo]

Excellent article. Thanks for the Dixie Ping, Stainless.

[aomagrat]

Cool, very cool!

[Capriole]

This is really very lovely and touching. IT's wonderful to hear that Southern culture is being preserved by people who cherish their heritage.

[azhenfud]

Quite simply, a charming article....

Thanks for the ping, sir...

[SCDogPapa]

Thanks for the ping Stainless. You ready to go??? :)

[stainlessbanner]

Sho' Nuff! Judging from those pictures, looks like purty ladies and lots of fun!

I have tracked (potentially) one of my ancestors to a ship bound for Hondouras or Brazil. I'm still working on the research.

[stainlessbanner]

The Lost Colony of the Confederacy

by Eugene C. Harter

Eugene C. Harter's The Lost Colony of the Confederacy is the story of a grim, quixotic journey of twenty thousand Confederates to Brazil at the end of the American Civil War.

Although it is not known how many Confederates migrated to South America, estimates range from eight thousand to forty thousand - their departure was fueled by bitterness over a lost cause and a distaste for an oppressive victor. Encouraged by Emperor Dom Pedro, most of these exiles settled in Brazil.

Although at the time of the Civil War the exodus was widely known and discussed as an indicator of the resentment against the Northern invaders and strict Governmental measures imposed by the federal government after the peace at Appornatox, The Lost Colony of the Confederacy is the first book to focus on this mass migration.

Harter vividly describes the lives of these last Confederates who founded their own city and were called Os Confederados by the Brazilians. They retained much of their Southemness and lent an American flavor to Brazilian culture. The cultural province they established still exists as testimony to the hardiness of Southern ways.

First published in 1985, this work details the background of the exodus and describes the life of the twentieth-century descendants, who have a strong link both to Southern history and to modem Brazil.

The fires have cooled, but it is useful to understand the intense feeling's that sparked the migration to Brazil and other areas of the globe. Southern ways have melded into Brazilian, and both are linked by the unbreakable bonds of history, as shown in this revealing account.

Eugene C. Harter is retired from the U.S. Senior Foreign Service and lives in Chestertown, Maryland. He is the grandson and great-grandson of Confederates who left Texas and Mississippi as a part of the great Confederate migration in the late 1860s.

Texas A&M, 08/00

[Tax-chick]

Fascinating. There are lots of Brazilians around here ... maybe they should be invited to Southern heritage events. They have great food!

[Blue Screen of Death]

Elect Hillary and watch the population of this town grow.

[FreetheSouth!]

Back in 94 or 95 a local fellow gave a talk to our Sons of Confederate Veterans. camp (James M. Keller 648) about his trip to Americana to visit some long lost relatives he had found. That led to our camp sending one of our members down to Brazil on his next trip. When he came back he had added 10 new members to our camp rolls from Americana and had met the daughter of one of the Confederados. We turned his information over to National Headquarters and they sent a mission down later that year. Now there is a S.C.V. camp in Brazil.

By the way, He married that girl he met on the first trip. Her name is Susan Lee; she is a direct descendant of the Lee family of Virginia (Yes, those Lee's!).

[Rebelbase]

""There was a little bit of slave ownership in Brazil but it wasn't very important," Dawsey said. "

I saw a map in a National Geographic once that showed the numbers of slaves brought from Africa to various nations. Brazil was in the upper ranking of slaves imported, as per that map.

[Rebelbase]

"she is a direct descendant of the Lee family of Virginia "

I work with a woman who is a direct descendant of the Lee family. There is a noticable family resemblence to R.E. Lee in her appearance. (without the beard!) (8^)

[SCDogPapa]

like purty ladies and lots of fun!

That does sound mighty good! I think I could handle that.

I have tracked (potentially) one of my ancestors to a ship bound for Honduras or Brazil. I'm still working on the research.

If it works out that you have people in Honduras,,,,,,I could sure a GOOD connection for some of those good Honduran cigars. :))

[RebelBanker]

Thanks for the ping. The Confederados are a fascinating group.

Your Humble Servant...

[stand watie]

!!!!!!!!