American Brazilians

An American Brazilian (Portuguese: américo-brasileiro, norte-americano-brasileiro, estadunidense-brasileiro) is a Brazilian person who is of full, partial or predominant American descent or a U.S.-born immigrant in Brazil.

The Confederados is a cultural sub-group in the nation of Brazil. They are the descendants of people who emigrated from the Confederate States of America to Brazil with their families after the American Civil War.

At the end of the American Civil War in the 1860s, a migration of

American immigrants.^[3]

That was one of the main reasons why emperor

Dom Pedro 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]

History

Background and beginning

After the end of the American Civil War, the

U.S. history.^[6]

They heard about

Emperor 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, the

White 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]

Americans

.

Emigration companies

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 several

companies were formed. Representatives were sent to Brazil to check the land, climate and facilities offered by the emperor.^[7]

In November 1865, the state of South 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 organized

Protestant group to settle in Brazil.^[7]

Americana and Santa Bárbara d'Oeste colonies

On December 27, 1865, Colonel and Senator William Hutchinson Norris of Alabama landed in the port of Rio de Janeiro. In 1866, William and his son Robert Norris climbed the Serra do Mar, stopped in São 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 where São Caetano do Sul is today, and they refused for the same reason. They decided to go to Campinas, 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 for land, until they cast their sights on the plain that stretched from Campinas to Vila Nova da Constituição, current Piracicaba.^[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 of Santa Bárbara d'Oeste and where today is the center of the city of Americana. Upon his arrival, Colonel Norris began to give practical courses in agriculture 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 their gardens. 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]

Numerous

immigrants, 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 the train station, also dates from this period. This industry really played a very important role in the foundation and development of Americana. The education of children was one of the priorities for American families who set up schools on the properties and hired teachers from the United States. The teaching methods developed by American teachers proved to be so efficient that they were later adopted by Brazilian official education.^[8]

David Bowman Riker, from Charleston, South Carolina, United States, syringeist in Santarém, Pará, Brazil.

Religious services were celebrated on the properties by

Presbyterian 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 the Catholic Church, American immigrants began to bury their dead near the farmhouse. This cemetery became known as the Campo Cemetery, currently a tourist attraction in the city of Santa 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]

Amazonas state colony

Jason Williams Stone, an

rubber 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 of Manaus and Itacoatiara, in Amazonas.^[9]

Pará state colony

The city of Santarém, in the state of Pará, 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 the business and political life of the region.^[10]

It is not known how many immigrants came to Brazil as

U.S. citizens entered Brazil between 1865 and 1885.^[10]

Recent immigration

Descendants and culture

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 the

jobs urban 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 a memorial

.

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 and

American food and dances are served and performed. The descendants maintain affection for the Confederate flag, although they identify themselves as fully Brazilian. Many Confederate descendants traveled to the United States at the invitation of Sons of Confederate Veterans, an organization of American descendants, to visit civil war battlefields, participate in reenactments, or visit the places where their ancestors lived.^[11]

The

Confederate flag in Brazil did not acquire the same political symbolism as it has in the United States. After then-Governor Jimmy Carter's visit to the region in 1972, the government of Americana even incorporated the Confederate flag into its coat of arms (although most of the Italian-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 of Santa 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 the

U.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).

public schools

and provided education to their female children, which was unusual in Brazil at the time.

Immigration in numbers

American immigration to Brazil by State up to January (1867)^[14]

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

The

Confederate emigres were some 20,000 Southerners, from 12 southern states (i.e. Arkansas, Alabama and Mississippi) who preferred the Brazilian wilderness to life under Yankee rule after the Civil War.^[15]

Descendants of the immigrants

Number of American descendants by state

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

refugees from the American Civil War (known as Confederados

), who then settled in the region.

Confederado phrases in Brazil

"...My father took part in the 1st Battalion that left Gonzalez. He was hurt in a battle in Virginia and sent back home, but he soon afterwards recovered and went back to the war. He was confined to prison and released. He returned home and once again returned to the battle field. "...In those days of shocking terror, both rebuilding and staying there turned impossible. Daily crimes surrounded us and there was nothing we could do..."^[16]

"Our farm was beautiful, had several

refugees."^[16]

"I have

potatoes, Irish potatoes, cornfield peas, snap beans, butter beans, ochre, tomatoes and fine chance at tobacco. I have a great variety of fruits on my place. I have made enough to live well on and am better pleased than other."^[17]

"I remember when I was 4 years old, I was lost in a textile factory and I couldn't tell the people anything because I only spoke English", recalled an engineer and third-generation descendant. "I didn't learn Portuguese until I started school."^[18]

"They came here because they felt that their 'country' had been invaded and their land confiscated," said great-granddaughter of the original McKnight family that moved to Brazil from Texas, in the Southern United States. "To them, there was nothing left there. So, they came here to try to re-create what they had before the war."^[18] "I grew up listening to the stories. They were angry and bitter. When they talked about it, moving here, the war, leaving their homes, it was always a very sore subject for them."^[18]

Culture

The center of Confederado culture is the Campo Cemetery in Santa Bárbara d'Oeste, where most of the original Confederados from the region were buried. Because of their

Protestant

religion, they established their own cemetery. The Confederado community has also established a Museum of Immigration at Santa Bárbara d'Oeste to present the history of Brazilian immigration and highlight its benefits to the nation.

The descendants still foster a connection with their history through the Fraternity of American Descendants, a descendant organization dedicated to preserving the unique mixed culture. The Confederados also have an annual festival, called the Festa Confederada which is dedicated to fund the Campo Cemetery. The festival is marked by Confederate flags, traditional dress of Confederate uniforms and hoop skirts, food of the American south with a Brazilian flair, and dances and music popular in the American south during the antebellum period.