Posted on 07/13/2002 1:47:48 PM PDT by stainlessbanner
PLANT CITY - Plant City Chapter 1931 of the United Daughters of the Confederacy will meet at 10 a.m. July 20, at the 1914 Plant City High School Community Center, 605 N. Collins St.
Guest speaker will be Scott L. Peeler Jr. He will present a program on ``Confederates in Brazil,'' dealing with a group of Confederate soldiers who formed a colony in Brazil after the Civil War.
The program is free and open to the public. For information, call (813) 752-0243.
for dixie,sw
At the end of the Civil War in the 1860's, a migration of Confederates to Brazil began, 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 of Rio Doce.
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. Read more about the Brazilian descendants of the Confederados at the The Sons of Confederate Veteran's web page for the "Os Confederados"
There are records that show Charles Gavin traveling between Rio Doce 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. It seems probable that he lived in Rio Doce and traveled to Rio de Janeiro to conduct business. South Carolinian Charles G. Gunter formed his colony on Lake Juparana at the mouth of the Rio Doce River at Linharis, the town from which Charles Gavin wrote the letter in 1884 to his daughter, Annie.
Charles Gavin's nephew, John L. Gavin, arrived in Rio de Janeiro from New York on June 19, 1868 aboard the South America, and traveled to Rio Doce on July 30, 1868. There is no record of the date of his return to the United States. This information was supplied to Arnold and Joan Gavin by Betty Antunes de Oliveira in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
There was an article about how the Confederate decendants still celebrate Confederate Memorial Day and Lee/Jackson birthdays I had a few years ago. They would go to a Confederate cemetary, honor their ancestors, and then celebrate. Sadly the younger generations are losing the traditions, not unlike here.
In noticed Brazil settled the slavery issue peacefully in 1888. If lincoln had exported his methods of 'ending slavery' packaged in a 'global vision', the body count from uncivil wars would have been staggering.
I also read that the Confederados did not bring slavery with them to Brazil. This tells me the Confederates were more interested in liberty than slavery.
Yup, they couldn't take over Cuba, so those Wascawy Webels went ever FURTHER off the deep end--er, South, that is.
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