Yet Further South: The Brazilian Confederados Through the Lens of Historiography

As the American Civil War drew to a close, Confederate soldiers began to desert at an ever higher rate. Among the deserters, some ambitious souls who could not fathom living under a restored Union began to look beyond the borders of the United States for refuge and were soon joined in their endeavor by several high-ranking officials and military officers. Many of these expatriates soon found themselves in the equatorial Empire of Brazil, where they were allowed to perpetuate their plantation way of life. These Confederados, as the locals referred to them, unknowingly facilitated a massive scientific and cultural exchange that, in addition to forming several English-speaking conclaves, advanced their surrogate state’s knowledge of farming considerably. This paper aims to provide a concise overview of the expatriate communities and their founders, explain the choice of Brazil as a refuge, and outline the changes wrought by their arrival and eventual assimilation.