Dixie tradition kept alive in Brazil enclave[Confederate immigrants]

The Washington Times ^ | 02 Oct 2007 | Anton Foek

[BGHater]

AMERICANA, Brazil

Now well past 90, Judith MacKnight Jones is suffering from Alzheimer's disease, the illness that robbed her of all of her memory, her most precious asset.

She has been lying here for the past 11 years, covered by a patchwork blanket, made from pieces her great-grandmother brought from the United States between 1865 and 1885, after the Confederacy lost the Civil War.

Unable to speak or remember now, her book "Soldado Descanso" ("Rest Soldier") is written in Portuguese, but soon will be translated into English, as the publisher thinks Americans should know about the proud history of Confederate immigrants settling in Brazil, finding a new home here but maintaining many of the traditions they brought from Alabama, Texas, Louisiana, Tennessee, Arkansas, the Carolinas and Georgia.

Her daughter-in-law, Heloisa Jones, said patchwork is only one of the values the Americans have brought.

This blanket is not just any patchwork, she said, "these pieces are very old and reflect a valuable tradition," she said.

"Over a century old and symbolizing our heritage, the flight from our homelands, it is extremely important to keep it that way. I teach my children and grandchildren the American values our ancestors have brought with them. And I expect them to teach their children and grandchildren the same," she said.

Every spring, hundreds of the descendants of the soldiers who lost the war against the North go to the cemetery they call O Campo. They party and meet dressed in traditional costumes, staging shows, singing Southern songs like "When the Saints Come Marching In" or "Oh Susannah," playing banjos and blowing trumpets, the men eventually getting drunk on home-brewed beer.

[BGHater]

Tradition is strong in Americana, Brazil, and surrounding towns, where American values are abundant but where the immigrants have learned about Brazilian values as well. Books are an important source of information about the migration of U.S. Confederate soldiers and their families to Brazil after the war. The title, in Portuguese, translates to "Rest, Soldier."

Some classics:

She said Northerners are welcome but still frowned upon. If, for example, the U.S. ambassador or consul-general from Sao Paulo visits and is a Northerner, he probably will be received differently than if he were from the South.

Mrs. MacKnight-Jones writes that she learned from her parents not to name Abraham Lincoln by his name, but only as "that man."

[Red Badger]

...for example, the U.S. ambassador or consul-general from Sao Paulo visits and is a Northerner, he probably will be received differently than if he were from the South.

Same here...........LOL!!!....

[wideawake]

It must have been a great consolation to her defeated ancestors that in Brazil they were still able to enjoy the precious right to own other people for another 23 years - until the party was ruined once again.

[-=SoylentSquirrel=-]

No need for you to be hateful.

[popdonnelly]

Slavery hasn’t been American since 1865. That’s a very good thing.

[353FMG]

I still remember when the country was populated by Damn Yankees and F**king Rebels. Yet, even with the mock animosity between the two groups, there was more national unity than what we have now. Nobody was concerned about diversity and multiculturalism.

[DirtyPigpen]

You are so right. That is the only reason Southerner’s stood up to the US Gov’t in 1862. At least they got another 23 years.

[Red Badger]

We all got along very well until someone from “outside” started something.............

[RedMonqey]

Spoken like a pair of truly poor-mannered, ill-bred yankees...

[DirtyPigpen]

Don’t include me!!! I forgot the sarc on/off tag.

[AppyPappy]

Another 23 years of mortal sin.

[Andy'smom]

What an interesting post!

[Riverman94610]

Its a legitimate question to ask the emigres about their policy on slavery while in Brazil.
Most pro-Confederates swear the Civil War was about State’s Rights,not slavery or white supremacy.In fact,they often brag about the free blacks who fought on the Southern side.
OK,fine.Then should we assume that those who migrated to Brazil had no slaves and,more likely,had a number of black freedmen WITH them as they built this new settlement?

[dynachrome]

Maybe you could invite some of these guys to one of the re-enactments

[wordsofearnest]

Bless your heart!

[PeaRidge]

Southerners did not stand up to the US government in 1861 over slavery. They did not need to.

On March 2, 1861, the 2d session of the Thirty-sixth U.S. Congress, passed a constitutional amendment that would prohibit the Constitution from ever being altered in its protection of slavery which had been affirmed in the Dred Scott decision.

This was a Northern effort, drafted by Congressman Thomas Corwin of Ohio. It was immediately endorsed by President James Buchanan, a Democrat from Pennsylvania, and on March 4, 1861, Republican President, Abraham Lincoln of Illinois, hurried to endorse it in his first inaugural address.

It therefore enjoyed bipartisanship support and the backing by two Northern born and bred Presidents.

The congressionally ratified 13th (also known as the Corwin Amendment) said the following:

“No amendment shall be made to the Constitution which will authorize or give to Congress the power to abolish or interfere, within any state, with the domestic institutions thereof, including that of persons held to labor or service by the laws of said state.”

“I have no objection to its being made express and irrevocable,” would be Lincoln’s response in his first inaugural address, March 4, 1861.

So, who was wanting slavery protected after all?

[AppyPappy]

Many Southerners viewed the ownership of human beings to be a basic human right. My ancestors did. However, these were different times. Indentured Servitude was still in practice which is a basic form of slavery. Slaves could buy their freedom and owners were expected to honor that right.

Slavery was practiced in the US until the 1940’s. We just called it different names. The real crime was the practice of oppressing people based on their skin color. Slavery was part of that oppression.

[kalee]

recent unpleasantness ping

[Squantos]

CW Ping !!

[RedMonqey]

Thank you kindly.

[RedMonqey]

Then so it is .....

Many pardons....

[ozzymandus]

Wow, those rebs must be really old by now! How long do people live in Brazil, anyway?

[Riverman94610]

Points taken.
I was just curious if you knew WHAT the Brazilian Condederates specific policy was toward slaves while IN Brazil.Did they use any to build their colony?
I know this is research I should do but I’m swamped with other stuff right now.

[Zionist Conspirator]

So now will we white Southerners get a commie "national liberation movement???" This sounds like a good place to start one!

[massgopguy]

Portugal had it as late as 1890. And they started it in 1440!

[Zionist Conspirator]

It must have been a great consolation to her defeated ancestors that in Brazil they were still able to enjoy the precious right to own other people for another 23 years - until the party was ruined once again.

Ah, but you forget . . . only the slavery that existed in the USA was actually bad. Everywhere else it was AOK!

Seriously, do you ever hear slavery condemned without it being American slavery? Do you think these other countries are still beating themselves up over it?

[ArrogantBustard]

The muzzies currently have slavery ... and have been in the slavetrading business for as long as mohammedanism has been a plague upon the Earth.

I suppose that's another "inconvenient truth" ...

[CivilWarguy]

Actually, most southerners who emigrated to Brazil came back within a year or two, so they didn’t have much chance to do anything one way or the other about slavery. And most of the emigres were too poor to afford to buy a slave.

They didn’t fit in with an alien culture, language, and alien (i.e., Catholic) religion. Americana was the one “colony” that survived past the first 20 years.

More southerners emigrated to Mexico, Honduras or Venezuela, none of which had slavery at that time, than came to Brazil.

[Verginius Rufus]

I think most of the Southerners who moved to Brazil were too poor when they got there to become slaveholders there. There was a TV program about these people some time ago that showed them keeping up antebellum dances and that sort of thing, but in most other respects they were thoroughly Brazilian, with many of them being of mixed racial ancestry. Ironic, nao?

[dljordan]

“She said Northerners are welcome but still frowned upon. If, for example, the U.S. ambassador or consul-general from Sao Paulo visits and is a Northerner, he probably will be received differently than if he were from the South.”

I had one of my co-workers from Brazil tell me about this last year. I had no clue! He also told me the Brazilians sent and expeditionary force to Italy during WWII after the Nazi’s sunk some of their shipping.

[MamaB]

Some of those people were ancestors of the wife of Jimmy Carter.

[Riverman94610]

Thanks for clarifying,Warguy.

[BuglerTex]

Maybe you could invite some of these guys to one of the re-enactments

I believe that would perhaps be like that oft-used Star Trek plot twist involving a tradition so changed by time that it morphed into something else. Vger = Voyager, and the mispronounced Declaration of Independence having become a liturgical chant. This probably would be enlightening to both parties.

[Little Bill]

Sir/Madam, as a scabby Yankee dog. May I ask what State did you and yours commit Treason in?

[RedMonqey]

If by treason you mean they fought for the right to secede the Union as freely as they joined it (as Thomas Jefferson intended) and against the designs of Northern aggressors then yes they fought very bravely and loyaly for their state of Tennessee.

[BuglerTex]

yes they fought very bravely and loyaly for their state

Well, it seems as our accuser has chosen to describe himself as a diseased cur, and to bite while drooling slime, I find it magnanimous of you to have given such a well considered reply. In my case, it was Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, Arkansas, and South Carolina to count the kissin' cousins. Not a northerner in the bunch. My great grandfather never wore blue, and the balcony at the picture show cleared out when he hollered as he watched Birth of a Nation.

On the other side of the family, one of the slaves went to war with my older great grandfather out of devotion. They both mustered out together at the end of the war.

[Little Bill]

Where in The Constitution does the right to secede exist? The States voted in, but the right to vote out is not mentioned.

[Little Bill]

Let us say, as in the case of my family, who came from NY, IL,WI, MO, TN, ALA,and MS. Most of us couldn't afford slaves. Outside of the South, which had the draft, who would fight for bondage.

No one, so what is the secondary argument?

[BuglerTex]

Most of the southern folk were not fighting for that peculiar institution, and many were strongly opposed. Lee for one, and Longstreet advocated freeing the slaves and then seceding.

But is incorrect to deny that this issue was the root cause of the conflict. And more incorrect to conclude that the outcome was merely to make illegal the consideration of persons as chattel. The Federal form of the government and the striking change away from the constitutional reservation of rights by the states was the result. This was Adams and Hamilton versus Jefferson played out by their grandchildren, and probably those Jacksonian as well. Sam Houston strongly opposed secession.

This country was taken over (effectively) by an armed coup by the Lincoln Republicans and abolitionists and northeastern industrialists, and the southern states decided to leave, and the north invaded.

We hold these issues very strongly and very deeply. Most northern folks do not understand. We were a conquered and oppressed and humiliated people during reconstruction. A carpetbagger is worse than any racial epithet. It is the worst form of scoundrel. The first republican gubernatorial administration of Texas to be unseated in the election years after the war had to be forced out at gunpoint. They had control, illegal possession, and they did not want to leave.

Now do not think that anyone can call my ancestors treasonous and come away without my vehement response. The Supreme Court advised against the prosecution of Jefferson Davis for treason, because they knew the case would be lost, and the proof would have upset the entire legality of the war. This is history.

The north had the draft riots, and I do not believe the south had the draft. By the way, I will argue for my ancestors until the day my own great great grandchildren die.

[Vietnam Vet From New Mexico]

Where in the Constitution does it say they cannot secede?

The Constitution grants specified powers to the Federal Government, denies the states certain powers (such as coining money) and states that all other rights are reserved by the states or the people.

Furthermore, several states, north and south, specifically stated in their ratification of the Constitution that if things did not work out, they reserved the right to secede.

[Vietnam Vet From New Mexico]

The South did indeed have a draft. Both sides did, I think the South passed it first as they felt the manpower crunch first.

However, the majority of soldiers on both sides volunteered and served honorably.

And I agree, fighting to defend your country from invasion is in no way treason.

[RedMonqey]

I find it magnanimous of you to have given such a well considered reply...

Thank you. He described himself in terms better than any condemnation I dared yet utter in an open forum and not get banned. ...In my case, it was Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, Arkansas, and South Carolina to count the kissin' cousins. Not a northerner in the bunch. My great grandfather never wore blue...

Interesting family oral tradition also spoke of our great, great grandfather Andrew to the day he died, never wore blue either. He also never took the pledge, ever the unrepented rebel. Although not legally suppose to vote, he did get a ballot in the elections after Tennessee was readmitted to the Union. Attended many divisional reunions( Forbes Bivouac, 14th Ten. infantry) Not as sure of the other five brothers and assorted cousins and uncles.( 14th Ten. infantry and 49th Ten. infantry) They fought everywhere from Ft Donelson(escaped with Forrest) to Lee in Gettysburg and finally Appomattox. (Walked home from Orange County Courthouse in Virginia)

Contrary to opinion of many here, not every, I dare say not even the majority of former rebels were fire breathing hate mongering Klansman bent on the genocide of the freedmen.

Most just went about the business of every living as best they could. our family never allowed the bitter war to interfere with relations with the former slaves population. Being lower to middle class farmers they hired several freedmen throughout the years and worked beside them. They (and we remain)were very cordial with black families in the community. Even went to the same Presbyterian church. Although I must confess at the time it was segregated with the the back bench reserved for the Freedmen.

I have an old photograph on the wall of Andrew and his son Curtis with Uncle Henry and his brother, two of his workers sitting on mules in the front of the old family homestead.

This is just part of our family's travail throughout history and we didn't need no damned fool historical revisionist to tell us what happened back in those foreboding days.

[RedMonqey]

Many Southerners viewed the ownership of human beings to be a basic human right.

A sad but valid statement. An equally valid statement is that the majority of mankind at the same moment of time believed one man could own his fellow man.

Lest we forget. Liberty to be an individual born of inalienable rights was a radicleidea to most of the world and relatively new concept even in our country.

[truemiester]

As a souther born and raised man, I will say that the south had the right to succeed, per the constitution.

As an American first, I am glad the war was fought and won in the interest of national unity.

Otherwise we would be ‘balkanized’ like Europe. With perhaps 3 languages (English, French and Spanish). Not the great and powerful USA we are now.

[RedMonqey]

Where in The Constitution does the right to secede exist? The States voted in, but the right to vote out is not mentioned.

True. However equally so, NOWHERE does it FORBID states the right to secede either. One could go the easy route and say it is hidden in the Tenth Amendment but one does not have to go there.

In many European societies if the right is not mentioned then it is assumed it does not exist. Divine right of Kings transposed to the State in the modern era. However our founding fathers believed that Man had inalienable rights given by God and stated numerous times in the document and without our constitution of it. States that just because a right is not numerated(mentioned) does not mean it does not exist. It is the reverse. It is assumed man has that right unless strictly forbidden or comes into conflict with the rights of others or powers stated in the constitution.

Although not exactly the same as individual liberties, states also have certain powers that are assumed to them unless expressly denied by or restricted to only the federal government or impedes upon individual rights.

Secession is one of them and Jefferson spoke of it several times in his writtings.

(Mute point anyway. Lincoln settled this one by force....)

[wideawake]

Spoken like a pair of truly poor-mannered, ill-bred yankees...

LOL! Of course, there is no such thing as an uncouth Southron.

Let's face facts - this woman's ancestors were total dead-enders who were willing to abandon the country of their birth because they could not bear to witness the unthinkable calamity of black people being free citizens.

They fled to the one country left in the Western world where their vile mores still held broad sway.

I'm not sure why we are supposed to feel all warm and fuzzy about a crew of people whose American patriotism and willingness to live in the USA was predicated on whether or not it allowed a race of people to be held in chains.

[Lee'sGhost]

What a dumbass thing to say.

[Lee'sGhost]

‘Many Southerners viewed the ownership of human beings to be a basic human right.”

As did many Northerners, which explains why slavery started in the north and existed there eve during the war.

[wideawake]

However equally so, NOWHERE does it FORBID states the right to secede either.

The Constitution obliges the states and the American people to regard the Constitution as the supreme law of the land.

In other words, if a state is to secede, its legislation in this regard is subject to review under the authority of the Constitution. By refusing to allow secession statutes to be submitted to this review, the seceding states violated the Constitution and the officers of those states violated their oaths to uphold that Constitution.

Moreover, the Constitution forbids states to enter into pacts with one another - and it is clear from the speed and coordination exhibited in the creation of the so-called Confederacy that the officers of states engaged in that criminal conspiracy had colluded with one another in contravention of the Constitution and their oaths to uphold it in that regard also.

[wideawake]

What a dumbass thing to say.

See, RM! There's the vaunted Southern charm and civility you were contrasting with my boorish Yankee ways.