Friday, November 05, 2004
Os Confederados*
By The Erudite Redneck
Confederate exiles who fled to Brazil after the American Civil War arrived at a time in Brazil’s political, economic, religious and educational development that mirrored fundamental mores of the Confederacy.
The Confederates’ nominal democracy meshed with the Brazilians’ liberal monarchy and nascent republic.
The Brazilians sought advanced agricultural technology to enhance their position in world trade; the Confederates brought it.
Brazilians were loosening traditional ties with the Catholic Church; ex-Confederate Protestants stepped in with evangelization.
Brazilians sought to improve education; the ex-Confederate Protestants and American-based missionaries answered by starting church schools.
The main exception to such commonalities was associated with race; for Brazilians it was a small factor in determining class status; for the ex-Confederates, it was the deciding factor.
Ex-Confederate ethos persisted for more than a century, with use of Southern-tinged English as the primary language and other overt expressions of culture common among descendants until very recent years.
Today, the ex-Confederates’ history has caught up with them, making them misfits to a degree. They struggle to distance themselves from their forefathers’ racial excesses, defending the same things that many American descendants of Confederates strain to preserve: symbols, such as the Confederate flag, considered racist by outsiders but as symbols of history to descendants.
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*"Os Confederados" -- "The Confederates" in Portuguese.
(Abstract for a longer paper written summer 2002.)
Confederate exiles who fled to Brazil after the American Civil War arrived at a time in Brazil’s political, economic, religious and educational development that mirrored fundamental mores of the Confederacy.
The Confederates’ nominal democracy meshed with the Brazilians’ liberal monarchy and nascent republic.
The Brazilians sought advanced agricultural technology to enhance their position in world trade; the Confederates brought it.
Brazilians were loosening traditional ties with the Catholic Church; ex-Confederate Protestants stepped in with evangelization.
Brazilians sought to improve education; the ex-Confederate Protestants and American-based missionaries answered by starting church schools.
The main exception to such commonalities was associated with race; for Brazilians it was a small factor in determining class status; for the ex-Confederates, it was the deciding factor.
Ex-Confederate ethos persisted for more than a century, with use of Southern-tinged English as the primary language and other overt expressions of culture common among descendants until very recent years.
Today, the ex-Confederates’ history has caught up with them, making them misfits to a degree. They struggle to distance themselves from their forefathers’ racial excesses, defending the same things that many American descendants of Confederates strain to preserve: symbols, such as the Confederate flag, considered racist by outsiders but as symbols of history to descendants.
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*"Os Confederados" -- "The Confederates" in Portuguese.
(Abstract for a longer paper written summer 2002.)
