Confederate Exodus

Historical curiosity has long inspired interest in the Confederados—immigrants from the former Confederate states who resettled in Brazil in the aftermath of the Civil War. Even though other late nineteenth-century immigration patterns to Brazil outranked the Confederados in size, this group—likely numbering in the tens of thousands—holds the unusual distinction of being among the largest cohesive out-migrations from the United States on record. Typical accounts of the Confederados vary between two themes. Most treat them as a news oddity, emphasizing surprise at finding Confederate imagery and throwback traditions such as the annual Civil War–themed Festa Confederada in the Brazilian city of Americana. Other accounts situate them historically within Lost Cause ideology. The Confederados thus become a reactionary vestige that set out to preserve a dying society premised on racial slavery in one of the last Western Hemisphere nations to permit the institution. Alan P. Marcus's Confederate Exodus challenges both views by presenting one of the first comprehensive cultural examinations of the Confederado communities in Brazil. Although his focus is historical, Marcus is a trained geographer and accordingly applies a synthesizing method to explore the interaction among political events, family migrations, economic exchange, and even the physical landscapes that these self-exiled southerners selected as their new homes. The result is a nuanced account that attempts to understand the social factors behind this migratory episode and its continued imprint on Brazilian society today

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