Festa Confederada in Santa Barbara, Brazil - Brazilian Town Celebrates Confederacy

Video by Rita Foo.
Filmed 30 April 2017.
Santa Barbara d'Oeste + Salto, São Paulo State, Southeast Brazil


Where the Confederated Flag is not considered politically incorrect...


American Brazilians
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/America...
At the end of the American Civil War, the Emperor Dom Pedro II of Brazil was interested in having cotton crops due to the high prices and, through Freemasonry contacts, recruited experienced cotton farmers for his nation. Dom Pedro offered the potential immigrants subsidies and tax breaks. General Robert E. Lee advised Southerners not to flee to South America but many ignored his advice and set out to establish a new life away from the destruction of war.
Many Southerners who took the Emperor's offer had lost their land during the war, were unwilling to live under a conquering army, or simply did not expect an improvement in the South's economic position. In addition, Brazil would not outlaw slavery until 1888. Although a number of historians say that the existence of slavery was an appeal, Alcides Gussi, an independent researcher of State University of Campinas, found that only four families owned a total of 66 slaves from 1868 to 1875. The Confederates were the first organized Protestant group to settle in Brazil.
The American immigration to Brazil was started within that year of 1865, in small ships and sailboats hurriedly reshaped, "motivated more by the pain and feelings of despair than by the vessels themselves." They were exhausted men, women and children, many were very injured, others were sick and depressed, but they were determined to give a new start to their lives in faraway Brazil.
Between 1865 and 1885, almost ten thousand white Americans coming mainly from Alabama, Texas, Louisiana, South Carolina, Mississippi, Ohio, Virginia, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Arkansas, Kentucky and Tennessee ran ashore in the ports of Belém, Vitória, Rio de Janeiro and Santos. Once they arrived, they had to redouble their so weakened energies and confront other faraway and tough trips around the land until they could reach the region of Campinas, whose climate and lands are similar to those of the Southern United States.
It is unknown just how many immigrants went to Brazil as refugees from the war, but unpublished research in the records of the port of Rio de Janeiro by Betty Antunes de Oliveira counts some 20,000 Americans that entered Brazil from 1865 to 1885. Of those, an unknown number returned to the United States as conditions improved there. Many immigrants renounced their U.S. citizenship and adopted Brazilian citizenship.
The immigrants settled in various places in Brazil ranging from the urban areas of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo to the northern Amazon region (especially Santarém) and Paraná in the south. But most of the Confederados settled in the area around present-day Santa Bárbara d'Oeste and Americana – this, derived from the name Vila dos Americanos. This was the name given by natives in the region because of its American population.
The first original Confederado known to arrive was the senator William H. Norris of Alabama—the colony at Santa Bárbara d'Oeste is sometimes called the Norris Colony. Dom Pedro's program was judged a success for both the immigrants and the Brazilian government. The settlers brought with them modern agricultural techniques and new crops such as watermelon, and pecans that soon spread among the native Brazilian farmers. Some foods of the American South also crossed over and became part of general Brazilian culture such as chess pie, vinegar pie, and southern fried chicken.
The original Confederados continued many elements of American culture and established the first Baptist churches in Brazil. They also established public schools and provided education to their female children, which was unusual in Brazil at the time.

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