Unreconstructed: The Confederate Diaspora

Hawk1981

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Apr 1, 2020
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The vast majority of Confederate soldiers and officials remained in the United States following the Civil War and accommodated themselves, however grudgingly, to the postwar order. But between 8,000 and 20,000 left the country rather than live in a nation ruled by their former adversaries. Some, such as Secretary of State Judah P. Benjamin, fearing arrest and trial for treason, moved to London or to Paris. Others hoped to pursue professional military careers that were barred to ex-Confederate officers in the United States. Former Confederate soldiers and sailors served in military forces as diverse as those of Peru and Egypt.

Many Confederate soldiers had the misfortune of being on the losing side in another Civil War when they joined the forces of Mexico's Emperor Maximilian in his struggle with republican forces. An example is that of cavalry General Joseph Shelby, who fled to Mexico with about 1,000 of his troops rather than surrender to Union forces. He planned to offer the services of his unit to Emperor Maximilian as a "foreign legion". Maximilian declined to accept the ex-Confederates into his armed forces, but he did grant them land for a permanent ex-Confederate settlement in Mexico. After Benito Juárez's victory in 1867, the land grant to Shelby's soldiers and their families was revoked and most returned to the United States.

Other Confederates fled to the South Pacific, where some set up plantations. James T. Proctor who lost a leg in battle and two hundred twenty slaves along with his Louisiana plantation at the end of the war, established a cotton plantation in Fiji and became notorious for "Blackbirding"--the kidnapping of indigenous people from the islands to labor on the plantations.

Several immigration efforts were organized to establish agricultural colonies, which were generally discouraged by the former leaders of the Confederacy. Robert E. Lee offered this advice to southerners tempted to leave in a letter, “They should remain, if possible, in the country; promote harmony and good feeling, qualify themselves to vote and elect to the State and general legislatures wise and patriotic men, who will devote their abilities to the interest of the country and healing all dissensions. I have recommended this course since the cessation of hostilities, and have endeavored to practice it myself.”

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Former President Jefferson Davis initially petitioned the government to allow his family to immigrate, but after his release from government custody wrote, “Because the mass of our people could not go, the few who were able to do so were most needed to sustain others in the hour of a common adversity.”

The ex-Confederates who did leave set up colonies in Mexico, British Honduras and Brazil. In Central Mexico, the New Virginia Colony was planned with the largest settlement Carlota, approximately midway between Mexico City and Veracruz, although other settlements were planned near Tampico, Monterrey, Cuernavaca, and Chihuahua.

The venture was conceived by Commodore Matthew Fontaine Maury, an internationally famous oceanographer and navy man, who had worked in the Confederate Secret Service. Maximilian liked Maury and his idea of inviting Confederates and anyone else to resettle in Mexico and offered land grants to any who would come and stay. Slavery was banned in Mexican law however, so no settler could bring slaves into Mexico. Maximilian was also eagerly seeking settlers from Germany, Austria, and France, as part of his strategy to rebuild and Europeanize Mexico.

Throughout the period, Maximilian's regime was under attack by Republican leaders Benito Juárez and Porfirio Díaz. When the French withdrew from Carlota in March 1867, the area was overrun by the forces of Juárez and the remaining New Virginia colonists fled the area. The New Virginia settlements were abandoned as the anti-Maximilian forces reached them. The survivors generally moved toward the coast. The imperial government collapsed in May 1867 and most of the settlers left Mexico.

British Honduras had been sympathetic to the Confederate cause during the Civil War, setting up a profitable trade in arms to the Confederacy that boosted the colonial economy. Following the war the colonial governor and other officials were interested in recruiting American Southerners who were knowledgeable in the cultivation of cotton and sugar. Confederate immigrants were offered substantial subsidies and tax breaks.

Many southerners were attracted to British Honduras in part because they could easily acclimate to the English-speaking colony. Well-known Confederates who went to British Honduras included Colin J. McRae (former Confederate Financial Agent in Europe) and Joseph Benjamin (brother of Confederate Secretary of War Judah P. Benjamin). The efforts to cultivate cotton and sugar met with mixed success as the inhospitable climate and ravenous insects stifled the effort.

By far the most successful new Confederate community was in Brazil. The Brazilian government wished to attract the southerners because of their agricultural expertise, particularly in the growing of cotton. The government also offered subsidies and tax breaks to would-be immigrants. Interest in Brazil was heightened by travel guides and books about the country, some predating the Civil War. Confederates in various states set up emigration societies to explore moving to Brazil, and some agents published pamphlets and information about Brazil, further inflaming interest in the massive country.

Both the government and the culture of Brazil attracted the colonists. The country remained neutral during the war, but sought ways to help the North American Rebellion. Brazil’s culture was like that of the South in some ways, including being “ruled” by a rural aristocracy. The immigrants to Brazil and their descendants are referred to as the Confederados, which is Portuguese for "Confederates." The exact number of individuals is difficult to determine, between 2,000 and 4,000 emigrants are estimated to have participated in the movement between 1865 and 1875. Leading researchers of the topic have identified 154 families that arrived in Brazil during this time, about half the total number eventually returned to the United States.
 
Brazil's Emperor Dom Pedro II personally extended invitations to the Rebels and met with some Confederado agents. When they first arrived, emigrants were given food and lodging in a luxurious government hotel. The Emperor at least once visited emigrants in the hotel. After their brief, comfortable stay, the pioneering Confederados were sent to their chosen place of residence with the government covering cost of transportation. The government also subsidized, with loans, passage for some emigrants to come to Brazil. However the government was in the middle of a war and never kept all its commitments, eventually leaving some Confederados in poverty with little possibility of escape.

Much of the success of one Brazilian colony is attributed to the efforts of the Norris family consisting of William, his wife Mary, and their 11 children. Georgia-born Colonel William Norris, a former Alabama state senator, was one of the principal participants and leaders of the movement. Norris arrived in 1866 and purchased between 400 and 600 acres and most likely planted cotton. His farm in the central São Paulo state became the focal point of the dominant settlement area. In 1870, the local railroad reached the vicinity, and the terminus became known as the "Village of the Americans." It would evolve into the city of Americana.

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A major incentive driving the Confederados, including the Norrises, from their homes was animosity toward the North and the uncertain future of the South after the war. Another element was the significant participation of group of families from Madison County, Alabama, who were part of a faction known as the "Broad River Group" because they originally hailed from the Broad River region of Georgia. Family and personal connections played an important role as well. Most of the emigrants were not wealthy and thus did not own slaves, Brazil's plantation economy, which depended upon an enslaved workforce (Brazil would not abolish slavery until 1888), was viewed by the Confederados as a stable and familiar economic system in which to relocate their families.

Most of the Confederado settlers near the town of Americana earned livings as farmers. They introduced new crops, including Rattlesnake watermelons and pecans, and brought new agricultural technology to Brazil, including the moldboard plow to cut through and turn the soil, improved carts, and better techniques for managing draft animals. Although initially focused on cotton, their fields soon became devoted to the locally ubiquitous cash crops: coffee and sugar cane.

Although most of the Confederados largely assimilated into the surrounding Brazilian culture, elements of their American heritage, including the use of the English language, food preferences, and religion, have persisted for well over 150 years. Periodic reunions are held at the Campo chapel, and artifacts and documents associated with the history of the Confederados are preserved at a museum in the town of Santa Bárbara.
 
Lansford Hastings, whose book led the Donner Party to their fate in California, led Confederado settlers to the unforgiving environment of the Amazon and his colony at Santarèm. Though most of the Santarèm colonists drifted away by the 1880s, there were 92 colonists listed in the area in 1888.

A 1983 tour guide-book of South America noted of Santarèm: “This city…was settled in 1865, by residents of South Carolina and Tennessee who fled the Confederacy where slavery was abolished. …It now serves as a supply center for miners, gold prospectors, rubber tappers, Brazil-nut gatherers, and the jute and lumber industries. Several bars display the Confederate flag, and you still occasionally meet the settlers’ descendants, who mixed with the multiracial Brazilians and have names like Jose Carlos Calhoun.”
 
The adventures of General Joseph Shelby, his men and their families in Mexico served as the basis of the movie The Undefeated (1969) with John Wayne and Rock Hudson.
 
Former confederates, especially members of the party fled to avoid the post Lincoln assassination retribution that was sweeping the country. It's interesting to note that in the 20th century there was a wave of sympathy for card carrying communists who were allegedly victims of unfair political activities but the North never really forgave confederates.
 

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