 Descendants of Americans during Confederado feast inSanta Bárbara d'Oeste | |
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 260,000[1] | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| São Paulo · Espírito Santo · Rio de Janeiro · Paraná · Pará · Minas Gerais · Bahia · Pernambuco | |
| Languages | |
| Brazilian Portuguese •American English •Spanish | |
| Religion | |
| Protestantism andRoman Catholicism andothers | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Other American andBrazilian people, especiallyConfederados and otherEuropean Americans,Brazilian diaspora inEnglish-speaking countries, otherWhite Latin Americans West and Northern European or ProtestantWhite Brazilians asEnglish,Scottish,Irish,Dutch,Scandinavian, Finnish, Latvian,German (ethnic Germans also amongCzech,Russian andPolish immigrants),Austrian,Swiss,French,Luxembourger andBelgian Brazilians |
AnAmerican Brazilian (Portuguese:américo-brasileiro, norte-americano-brasileiro, estadunidense-brasileiro) is aBrazilian person who is of full, partial or predominantAmerican descent or a U.S.-born immigrant in Brazil.
TheConfederados is a cultural sub-group in the nation of Brazil. They are the descendants of people who emigrated from theConfederate States of America to Brazil with their families after theAmerican Civil War.
At the end of the American Civil War in the 1860s, a migration ofConfederates to Brazil began, with the total number of immigrants estimated in the thousands. They settled primarily inSouthern andSoutheastern Brazil: inAmericana,Campinas,São Paulo,Santa Bárbara d'Oeste,Juquiá,New Texas, Xiririca (nowEldorado), Rio de Janeiro andRio Doce. A few other places also received immigrants: one colony settled inSantarém, Pará – in the north on theAmazon River[2] – and the states ofBahia andPernambuco also received a significant number ofAmerican immigrants.[3]
That was one of the main reasons why emperorDomPedro II became the first foreign chief of state and head of government to visit the U.S. capital; he also attended the Centennial Exposition in the largest city in Pennsylvania.[4] More recently, other waves of American nationals became residents in the country.[5]
After the end of the American Civil War, theConfederates found themselves in a very difficult economic situation, having their states completely devastated by the war. Not only the economic issue, as well as the persecution and discrimination that followed against the Confederate population, forced them to seek better living conditions. And to maintain slavery. This flight was the largest population exodus inU.S. history.[6]
They heard aboutBrazil and the advantages that the emperor gave to anyone who knew how to grow cotton. Before the war, theU.S. South was the world's biggestcotton exporter, exporting to the looms ofEngland andFrance. The BrazilianEmperor Dom Pedro II, in his forties, saw the opportunity for Brazil to enter the market and encouraged the arrival of cotton planters from the southern U.S. states to Brazil.[6]
Embittered and wounded, theWhite American southerners had to draw a little heat from the ashes to keep warm. Many sold their properties, gathered their belongings and came to Brazil, to a land where there were no wars, no trampling and no confiscation of goods.[6]
Even before the end of the war in 1865, there was already talk of emigrating to Brazil, but very little was known about this country. After the war ended, there was such a revival of the issue that severalemigrationcompanies were formed. Representatives were sent to Brazil to check the land, climate and facilities offered by the emperor.[7]
In November 1865, the state ofSouth Carolina formed a colonization society and sent Major Robert Meriwether and Dr. H. A. Shaw, among others, to Brazil to investigate the possibility of establishing a colony. On the way back, they published a report mentioning that two lords had already bought land and settled here.[7]
Many Southerners who accepted the Emperor's offer lost their land during the war, were unwilling to live under a conquering army, or simply did not expect an improvement in the southern economic situation. Furthermore, Brazil would not ban slavery until 1888. The Confederates were the first organizedProtestant group to settle in Brazil.[7]
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On December 27, 1865, Colonel and Senator William Hutchinson Norris ofAlabama landed in the port ofRio de Janeiro. In 1866, William and his son Robert Norris climbed theSerra do Mar, stopped inSão Paulo and speculated on land. They were offered land for free in what is now the neighborhood of Brás, but he did not accept it because it was marsh. They were also offered the land whereSão Caetano do Sul is today, and they refused for the same reason. They decided to go toCampinas, but at the time, the railroad went only 10 miles beyond São Paulo, and it was no advantage to take it, as Campinas is 45 miles from São Paulo. So the Norris bought an ox cart and headed for Campinas. They took 15 days to reach the city, and there they stayed for a while looking forland, until they cast their sights on the plain that stretched from Campinas to Vila Nova da Constituição, currentPiracicaba.[8]
The Norris bought land from the Domingos da Costa Machado sesmaria and established themselves on the banks of Ribeirão Quilombo, at the time belonging to the municipality ofSanta Bárbara d'Oeste and where today is the center of the city ofAmericana. Upon his arrival, Colonel Norris began to give practical courses inagriculture to farmers in the region, interested in cotton cultivation and new agricultural techniques. The plow he brought from the United States caused so much sensation and curiosity that, within a short time, they had a practical agricultural school, with many students who paid him for the privilege of learning and still cultivating theirgardens. The Colonel wrote to his family that he had made US$5,000 for that alone. In mid-1867, the rest of his family arrived, accompanied by many relatives.[8]
Numerousfarms were founded by North Americans who cultivated and processedcotton. They established an intense trade, notably from 1875 onwards, with the installation of the Santa Barbara Station by the Companhia Paulista de Estrada de Ferro. Due to the constant presence of theseimmigrants, the village that was formed in the vicinity of the Station became known as "Vila dos Americanos", or "Vila Americana", and gave rise to the current city of Americana.[8]
The installation of the Carioba factory by the North American engineer Clement Willmot and Brazilian associates, located one mile from thetrain station, also dates from this period. Thisindustry really played a very important role in the foundation and development ofAmericana. The education of children was one of the priorities for American families who set upschools on the properties and hiredteachers from theUnited States. The teaching methods developed by American teachers proved to be so efficient that they were later adopted byBrazilian official education.[8]
Religious services were celebrated on the properties bypastors who moved between various properties and the various centers ofAmerican immigration. In 1895 the firstPresbyterian Church was founded in the village of Estação. Due to the prohibition of burying people of other faiths in the cemeteries of cities administered by theCatholic Church, American immigrants began to bury their dead near the farmhouse. Thiscemetery became known as the Campo Cemetery, currently a tourist attraction in the city ofSanta Bárbara d'Oeste. Even today the descendants of American families are buried there. It is in this place that descendants gather periodically for religious cults and parties around the chapel founded in the 19th century.[8]
Jason Williams Stone, anAmerican immigrant ofBritish descent fromDana, Massachusetts, United States, moved to Brazil before the American Civil War, and ended up becoming atobacco andrubber farmer, soon staying very rich. Jason's plantations, which had more than five thousand hectares, were called Colonia Stone, and were located near the city of Itacoatiara, in Amazonas. Many of his descendants still have the surname "Stone". They are found mainly in the cities ofManaus andItacoatiara, in Amazonas.[9]
The city ofSantarém, in the state ofPará, received a wave of refugee families from the American Civil War that took place in the South of the United States. The first to land was the Riker family. In the 1970s, David Afton Riker published a book called The Last Confederate in the Amazon, which chronicles the saga of this migration and life in the new homeland. The Confederates and their descendants became notable in thebusiness and political life of the region.[10]
It is not known how many immigrants came to Brazil aswar refugees, but unprecedented research in the records of the port ofRio de Janeiro, by Betty Antunes de Oliveira, shows that around 20,000U.S. citizens entered Brazil between 1865 and 1885.[10]
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The first generation of Confederates remained an island community. As is typical, in the third generation, most families had already married native Brazilians or immigrants from other origins. Confederate descendants increasingly began to speak thePortuguese language and identify themselves as Brazilians. As the region around the municipalities of Santa Bárbara d'Oeste and Americana became a hub for sugarcane production and society became more mobile, the confederates moved to larger cities in search ofjobs inurban areas. Currently, only a few families of descendants still live on land owned by their ancestors. The descendants of the confederates are more spread throughout Brazil. They maintain their organization's headquarters at the Campo Cemetery, in Santa Bárbara d'Oeste, where there is also a chapel and amemorial.
Descendants make a connection to their history through the American Descendant Fellowship, a descendant organization dedicated to preserving immigrant culture. The descendants of the confederates also hold an annual festival in Santa Bárbara d'Oeste called "Festa Confederada", which is dedicated to funding the Campo Cemetery. During the festival, Confederate flags anduniforms are worn, while SouthernAmerican food anddances are served and performed. The descendants maintain affection for the Confederate flag, although they identify themselves as fullyBrazilian. Many Confederate descendants traveled to the United States at the invitation ofSons of Confederate Veterans, an organization of American descendants, to visit civil warbattlefields, participate in reenactments, or visit the places where their ancestors lived.[11]
TheConfederate flag in Brazil did not acquire the same political symbolism as it has in the United States. After then-GovernorJimmy Carter's visit to the region in 1972, the government ofAmericana even incorporated the Confederate flag into itscoat of arms (although most of theItalian-descendent population removed it a few years later from the city's official symbol, as the descendants of the Confederates now comprise about a tenth of the city's population). During his visit to Brazil, Carter also visited the city ofSanta Bárbara d'Oeste and the grave of a great-uncle of his wife, Rosalynn Carter, at Cemitério do Campo. At the time, Carter noted that Confederate descendants sounded and looked exactly like their country's southerners.[11]
Today, the Campo Cemetery (and thechapel and memorial located within it) in Santa Bárbara d'Oeste is a memorial, as most of the region's original Confederate immigrants were buried there. AsProtestants, they were prohibited by theCatholic Church from burying their dead in local cemeteries and had to establish their owncemetery. The community of descendants also contributed to theMuseum of Immigration, also located in Santa Bárbara d'Oeste, to present the history ofU.S.immigration to Brazil.[12]
The American immigrants introduced into their new home many new foods, such as pecans, Georgia peanuts and watermelon; new tools such as the iron plow and kerosene lamps; innovations such as modern dentistry, modern agriculture, and the first blood transfusion; and the first non-Catholic churches (Baptist, Presbyterian, and Methodist).[13]
| State | Immigrants |
|---|---|
| São Paulo | 800 |
| Espírito Santo | 400 |
| Rio de Janeiro | 200 |
| Paraná | 200 |
| Pará | 200 |
| Minas Gerais | 100 |
| Bahia | 85 |
| Pernambuco | 85 |
| Total | 2,070 |
TheConfederate emigres were some 20,000 Southerners, from 12 southern states (i.e. Arkansas, Alabama and Mississippi) who preferred the Brazilian wilderness to life underYankee rule after theCivil War.[15]
| State | Descendants |
|---|---|
| São Paulo | 100,490 |
| Espírito Santo | 50,258 |
| Rio de Janeiro | 25,220 |
| Paraná | 25,000 |
| Pará | 24,800 |
| Minas Gerais | 12,610 |
| Bahia | 10,686 |
| Pernambuco | 10,000 |
| Total | 260,000 |
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Today, Brazil is home to many American schools.[16]
-Chapel International School
-Pan American Christian Academy
- St. Francis College
-American School of Campinas
-American School of Rio de Janeiro
-ICS – International Christian School – Rio
-Our Lady of Mercy School
-Brasília International School
-American School of Belo Horizonte
-Pan American School of Porto Alegre
-International School of Curitiba
-International School of Amazonas
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