Jimmy Carter at the Confederate monument in Brazil.
Posted on 04/27/2015 3:51:01 PM PDT by drewh
It had all the trappings of a down-home country fair somewhere well below the Mason-Dixon line: Lynyrd Skynyrd medleys, mile-long lines for fried chicken, barbecue and draft beer, and a plethora of Confederate flags emblazoning everything from belt buckles to motorcycle vests to trucker caps.
But Sunday's party marking the 150th anniversary of the end of the American Civil War took about 5,000 miles (8,000 kilometers) south of the South, in a rural Brazilian town colonized by families fleeing Reconstruction.
Thousands turn out every year, including many who trace their ancestry back to the dozens of families who, enticed by the Brazilian government's offers of land grants, settled here from 1865 to around 1875. They're joined by country music enthusiasts, history buffs and locals with a hankering for buttermilk biscuits or a fondness for 'The Dukes of Hazzard.'
The history of the Confederate migrants is one of the lesser-known stories of the Civil War, said Casey Clabough, author of the 2012 historical novel 'Confederados.' It's not even known for sure how many people made the arduous journey, Clabough said, with some historical accounts suggesting as few as 3,000, while others say there were as many as 10,000, predominantly from deep south states like Alabama, Louisiana and Georgia.
Most were lured by newspaper ads placed in the wake of the war by the government of Brazil's then-emperor, Dom Pedro II, promising land grants to those who would help colonize the South American country's vast and little-explored interior. 'They were seen as desirable, educated colonists,' said Clabough.
Legend has it that Dom Pedro himself was on hand at Rio's port to greet the first batch of Confederados, mostly enlisted men and small family farmers who were then dispatched to rural areas of the surrounding states.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
This is so funny - I’m thinking about all the (blue) cities and states that will now ban travel to Brazil
Jimmy Carter at the Confederate monument in Brazil.
How well do you feel the world will fare without the United States?
Everything will change, real quickly. And not for the better.
I've done a fair bit of traveling in Brazil.As a result I have a word of advice.
Don't.
Believe it or not, the first commercially successful cash crop the Confederados managed to produce was watermelons.
I don’t think the world will fare well at all. In fact, I see the dissolution of the USA as a necessary step to Armegeddon.
That is the one thing that really holds me back. But my heart longs to give my children a chance I think is no longer possible here.
What makes you say that?
My research indicates that both Brazil and Aregentina are both amazingly “modernized and/or westernized” and that most places there are relatively safe.
I’ve also heard a fellow with some savings and a good work ethic can make a great financial life there.
Convince me why I’m wrong.... (seeking views and information)
Some 15 years or so, I met a distant cousin on an internet genealogy site. We never met face to face, but we exchanged emails for several years. His family came from North Carolina and arrived in Brazil with no money, but build a good life over several generations. They were not wealthy and very few ever went to college. In many ways their standard of living was not changed beyond that they knew in North Carolina. My guess was that they had lost about 3 generations of economy progress by moving to Brazil. This guy spoke only Portuguese, although he could write fairly well in English.
As for Argentina, read up about President Christina Fernandez de Kirchner, inflation, and the recent murder of a prosecutor about to disclose an Iran/government connection concerning the Jewish Center slaughter (around 80 Jews killed) back in the 1990s.
As for Brazil, I know women who will not go around Rio without a male escort as the petty theft is flagrant.
There are “safe” places, relatively speaking, everywhere you go in the world. You will enjoy a visit to both places, but living there?
Now there’s the makings for a great book.
Ask Wardaddy - I believe he spent some time In Brazil.
Wonder if they ran into any Krauts back about 1945 or so?
Nice to see people proudly showing the Confederate Flag, which used to be an important part of our nation’s heritage until the tolerant leftists could not tolerate it.
The photos remind me of a reenactment, where in the US either gray or blue would be showing off their muskets. I have a feeling those poor folks do not have that option.
And 150 years from today in some far off country there will be a news piece showing those that fled America today, those persecuted for being faithful to their Constitution and religion.
Yes
I’ve actually known some of those in Americana. São paulo state
And knew quite well many descendants of Capt. William Lankins Bradford
Who sailed with Semmes in CSA navy
Refused to surrender and resettled in Baranquilla Colombia and prospered and had many many little Bradfords there to this day
One is a freeper.
They are upper class gente in Colombia
I’ve seen his uniforms and sword displayed in their homes
And letters from Lee asking him to come home to VA
He had a riverboat company on the Magdalena
Never returned
Just to expand a bit...to give a practical example of what others have said:
On a day tour of Rio we went to a national park very close to the city called Tajuca National Park.Rio is a very hilly area and Tajuca was on a pretty steep hill.As we were climbing the hill our guide directed our attention to a nearby hillside on which one could plainly see many,many small ramshackle buildings basically strewn all of that hillside.The guide said it was a "favela" which in Portuguese (or Brazilian) means "slum".She said that that favela was *so* violent and lawless that the Brazilian *Army* doesn't attempt to enter it *in daylight*.
I could go on...stories of the 3rd World poverty I saw in more rural areas...poverty almost equaling the poverty I saw in East Africa among other things.
“That’s just the way it is—
Some things will never change.
That’s just the way it is. But don’t you believe them.”
Bruce Hornsby And The Range
I love Dixie. So much so that I would never had left it, despite the depredations to come.
I’d like to think that I might have modeled myself along the lines of John S Mosby, who after the war became a Republican and somewhat of a confidant of Grant, thinking that such a station helped him in helping the South recover to whatever degree he might effect.
I just wonder how many of those who fled to Brazil may have known that they were war criminals, and what would have awaited them had they stayed.
GSG may well be referring to Cuidad de Deos / Dios. That is a movie title as well about the flavella of that name. (Means “City of God” in Portuguese.)
Violent.
And accurate.
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