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S SHALOM AND HAPPY CHANUKAH :
I I I INVITE YOU TO LISTEN TONIGHT TO A BIT OF RELATIVELY UNKNOWN HISTORY, of the Confederate Colonies of Brazil KNOWN AS The Confederados and their Jewish comrades in arms and philosophy called the Confederados Judeos.
One of the most famous colony is in Santarem, Amazonia, Brazil, which we will visit.
Now as mentioned, Ellen and I are now South Carolinians. (in accent): 'I was Jersey born; U of Pennsylvania Bred ; but when I die, I will be South Carolina dead.''
At the end of the Civil War in the 1860's, a migration of Confederates to Brazil began, including South Carolinian Jews, with the total number of immigrants estimated in the thousands. They settled primarily in the southern Atlantic coastal region of the country, in Americana, Campinnas, Sao Paulo, Juquia, New Texas, Xiririca, Rio de Janeiro, and Rio Doce. One colony settled in Santarem, in the north on the Amazon River.
The cost of passage was $20-$30, and the voyage took several weeks. Each family was encouraged to bring a tent, light weight furniture, farming supplies and seeds, and provisions to last six months. Land was offered at 22 cents an acre, with four years credit, and rich farmland was promised.
After landing on the coast, travel by land and river was difficult. 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 .
Although many Confederates ultimately returned to their homes in the United States, many more settled permanently in Brazil and their descendants are living in Brazil...many still celebrating their Southern American heritage as well as their Brazilian culture.
There are records that show Charles Gavin traveling between Santarem and Rio de Janeiro as early as 1867, but we do not know in which settlement he lived or when and with whom he arrived in Brazil. He lived in Santarem and traveled to Rio de Janeiro to conduct business. South Carolinian Charles G. Gunter came with both Jews and Christians.
John L. Gavin, nephew of aforementioned , Charles Gavin, arrived in Rio de Janeiro on June 19, 1868 aboard the ship South America, and traveled to Santarem on July 30, 1868. This post-Civil War Confederate migration to Brazil is one of the largest planned outward migrations from the United States ever to take place.
In 1867, Chester, South Carolinian physician James McFadden Gaston, published a book entitled: ''Hunting a Home in Brazil''. He hoped to entice other Southerners to seek a new home in Brazil. It was Warren L. Hastings who spearheaded the Confederate settlement on the Amazon River at Santarem which had over 200 colonists. Brazil actively encouraged Confederate immigration before the end of the war with offers of financial assistance in transportation, land ownership, and settlement to come and establish new homes in a country where slavery still existed and where cotton might once again become king.
At the end of the American Civil War, the Emperor Dom Pedro II of Brazil was interested in having cotton crops due to the high prices and, through Freemasonry contacts, recruited experienced cotton farmers for his 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. Although a number of historians say that the existence of slavery was an appeal, only four families owned a total of 66 slaves from 1868 to 1875.
Though not all Southerners favored the idea of leaving the South, and Robert E. Lee vociferously opposed it, Dr. Gaston traveled to New Orleans in June 1865 to confer with Brazilian agents and other leaders from across the South to plan scouting expeditions to consider the pros and cons of resettlement.
Gaston departed for his investigatory tour in September 1865, and after returning to South Carolina to publish his book and gather up his colony, set out again in 1867 with some one hundred settlers, including South Carolinian Jews.
Only partially successful in his colonization efforts, Gaston never realized his dream of establishing himself as a planter but was forced to continue his work as a physician to the Brazilian colony. He remained in Brazil until 1883, then returned to the United States and settled in Atlanta, Ga.
Similar fates awaited many of the Brazilian colonists. By the early 1870s the flow of immigrants from the American South had slowed considerably. The vast number of Southerners fleeing the South during Reconstruction initially anticipated by colonization leaders and the Brazilian government never materialized.
The American immigration to Brazil was started within that year of 1865, in small ships and sailboats hurriedly reshaped, "motivated more by the pain and feelings of despair than by the vessels themselves." They were exhausted men, women and children, many were very injured, others were sick and depressed, but they were determined to give a new start to their lives in faraway Brazil.
Between 1865 and 1885, almost ten thousand white Americans coming mainly from Alabama, Texas, Louisiana, South Carolina, Mississippi, Ohio, Virginia, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Arkansas, Kentucky and Tennessee came ashore in the ports of Belém at the mouth of the Amazon. Once they arrived, they had to redouble their so weakened energies and confront other faraway and tough trips around Brazil until they could reach these settlements whose climate and lands are similar to those of the Southern United States.
By 1870, there were about three hundred fifty families reported to be living in and around Santa Barbara D'Oeste, and there it was that the survivors from the Santarem colony of Hastings ,who did not leave Brazil, resettled.
Today the descendants of Confederate immigrants are scattered throughout Brazil and have banded together into a brotherhood, Fraternidade Descendencia Americana, which meets periodically at the Confederate cemetery site near Santa Barbara D'Oeste. The Confederates were the first organized Protestant group to settle in Brazil and the Jews maintaining their Jewishness, are buried there as well.
It is unknown just how many immigrants went to Brazil as refugees from the war, the records of the port of Rio de Janeiro and Belem counts some 20,000 Americans that entered Brazil from 1865 to 1885. Of those, an unknown number returned to the United States as conditions improved there. Many immigrants renounced their U.S. citizenship and adopted Brazilian citizenship.
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 ,especially Santarém, and Parana in the south. But most of the Confederados settled in the area around present-day Santa Bárbara d'Oeste and Americana – this, derived from the name Vila dos Americanos. This was the name given by natives in the region because of its American population.
The first original Confederados known to arrive was the senator William H. Norris of Alabama. The colony at Santa Bárbara d'Oeste 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 , and pecans that soon spread among 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 . Norris served as Imperial Congressman for the State of São Paulo, and was also commissioned the rank of Colonel of the Brazil National Guard.
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 first generation of Confederados remained an insular community, but by the third generation, most of the families had intermarried with native Brazilians or immigrants of other origins. Descendants of the Confederados increasingly spoke the Portuguese language and identified themselves as Brazilians.
As the area around Santa Bárbara d'Oeste and Americana turned increasingly to the production of sugar cane and society became more mobile, the Confederados drifted to cities. 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 the Campo Cemetery, in Santa Bárbara D'Oeste.
The descendants maintain affection for the Confederate flag even though they all consider themselves completely Brazilian. Modern Confederados distance themselves from any of the racial controversies.
In Brazil, the Confederate flag has not previously had the racial stigma that has been attached to it in the United States. Many descendants are of mixed-race and reflect the varied racial categories that make up Brazilian society in their physical appearance. 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% of the city's population.
In 1972, then Governor (and future President) Jimmy Carter of Georgia visited the city of Santa Bárbara d'Oeste and visited the grave of his wife Rosalyn's great-uncle who was one of the original Confederados . The Confederate flag was associated with the city in the wake of Jimmy Carter's visit to the region.
As mentioned, the center of Confederado culture is the Campo Cemetery in Santa Bárbara d'Oeste, where most of the original Confederados from the region were buried. Because of their Protestant religion, they established their own cemetery, and Jews had their section within it. The Confederado community has also established a Museum of Immigration at Santa Bárbara d'Oeste to present the history of Brazilian immigration and highlight its benefits to the nation.
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 fund the Campo Cemetery. 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.
Many Confederados have traveled to the United States at the invitation of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, an American descendants' organization, to visit Civil War battlefields, attend reenactments or see where their ancestors lived in the United States.
Another interesting fact, is a few newly freed slaves in the United States emigrated alongside their confederate counterparts and in some cases with their previous owners. One such former slave, Steve Watson, became the administrator of the sawmill of his former owner, Judge Dyer of Texas. Upon returning to the USA , due to homesickness and financial failure, Dyer deeded his remaining Brazilian property, the sawmill and 12 acres, to his former slave Watson. In the area of the Juquia valley there are many Brazilian families with the surname Vassão, the Portuguese pronunciation of Watson.
Not all Confederados came directly from the States. Some escaped a battle in Brazil's Bahia Harbour between the USA and the CSA navies. Commissioned in March 1862, the USA Wachusett was transferred to the special "Flying Squadron". This organization was tasked with tracking down and sinking Confederate raiders. In February 1864, the ship was ordered to go to Bahia, Brazil, with orders to protect American commerce in the area. That October, Wachusett encountered the raider CSS Florida in Bahia harbor. Though technically in neutral waters, Wachusett's captain, Commander Napoleon Collins, ordered an attack. Catching Florida by surprise, men from Wachusett quickly captured the ship. 90 CSA sailers were captured, 5 killed and 9 wounded. The ones who escaped were actually the first Confederados.
Thank you for letting me share this interesting, mostly untold, story of the Confederates, Jews and Gentile, who refused to surrender and came to Brazil instead.
Chag Sameach Chanukah!
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