Southern Fried Confederates

By Conner Bonneau and Sean Bongiovanni

History BA Students at Cal State East Bay

Imagine a town that holds an annual celebration over its collective heritage. The men dress up in gray Confederate Civil War uniforms, and the women dress like southern belles (Robinson 2017). The festivities include traditional southern food such as biscuits, fried chicken, ham with gravy, and coleslaw. Banjos are in the background playing songs like "Dixie’s Land” and the “The Yellow Rose of Texas.” Streets are adorned with the Confederate battle flag and Confederates are venerated at their gravestones (Soodalter 2013). You might be guessing where such a celebration could be taking place. You might be thinking of a midsize town or city in the American deep South such Biloxi, Mississippi, or Athens, Georgia. Although some form of veneration of the Confederacy exists in the American South and, indeed, throughout most of the United States, this annual celebration takes place in the Brazilian city of Americana.

So why does a city in Brazil venerate a strong Confederate tradition? The answer lies within the history of Brazil’s support for the rebel forces during the U.S. Civil War. Keep in mind that the war was fought over the subject of slavery and ended with the abolishment of slavery and the U.S. federal occupation of southern states. Nations in Europe withheld military support for the Confederacy and had nominal support for the Union because of the issue of slavery. However, one nation-state in South America sympathized and provided support to the Confederate cause: Brazil. Just like the American South, Brazil’s agricultural economy relied on the exploitation of enslaved labor for cash crops. Enslaved labor was exported to Brazil just as it was in the American South before the abolishment of the trans-Atlantic slave trade in 1807 by the British Parliament. This, however, did not halt the continuation of the practice of slavery in either Brazil or the American South. During the U.S. Civil War, Brazil provided support to Confederate ships, allowing these ships to be resupplied and repaired at Brazilian ports (Greenspan 2020). When the Confederates lost the war, many white Southerners simply did not want to live in a country without slavery. For tens of thousands of them, the solution was simple: to emigrate. But where would they go, and who would take them in? Emperor Maximilian of Mexico attempted to attract Confederate immigrants to Mexico so as to increase the state’s agricultural base, but he was executed less than a year later (Soodalter 2013). For many of these Confederates, Brazil was a top choice destination as it allowed them to rebuild their livelihoods in a familiar system where slavery was not yet abolished, and some would force their slaves to emigrate with them. After all, Brazil wouldn’t abolish slavery until 1888, over 20 years after the end of the American Civil War. These American emigrants sought to preserve enslavement as a way of life in a new hemisphere with land given to them by the Brazilian emperor, Dom Pedro II (Simmons 1982).

The end of the U.S. Civil War brought forth the genesis of a very small and specific diaspora of white American Southerners. These white southerners established the town of Americana, in São Paulo, Brazil. Much like their cousins in the American South, the events surrounding slavery and the Civil War served as the basis of their “Southern culture.” This is why the town of Americana celebrates the American Civil War annually through the adornment of Confederate military uniforms. They paint their streets with the Confederate battle flag and adorn that same flag on the gravestones of their Confederate ancestors. They venerate their ancestors who not only fought a war to preserve enslavement, but were also willing to move to the other side of the globe to preserve it. Brazil is a diverse society, and for many activists and members of the community they look at Confederate battle flags and rebel uniforms and see the veneration of the institution of slavery, not southern American culture. As a result, a new municipal law in Brazil could end the annual celebration of Confederates in Americana due to the racist undertones that come with the veneration of a slave society culture (Sage 2023). The Confederate descendants of Americana very well could have celebrated American southern culture with southern music, food, and dancing without the Confederate uniforms and battle flags, but their choice to use Confederate iconography reveals a misplaced belief that southern culture is rooted in the preservation of slavery.

Bibliography

Behr, Sage. “New Law Could Mark End of American Confederacy – in Brazil.” Christian Science Monitor. August 16, 2022. Accessed April 5, 2023, https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Americas/2022/0816/New-law-could-mark-end-of-American-Confederacy-in-Brazil.

Greenspan, Jesse. “The Confederacy Made Its Last Stand in Brazil.” History.com, June 22, 2020, https://www.history.com/news/confederacy-in-brazil-civil-war.

Robinson, Melia. “The American Confederacy is still alive in a small Brazilian city called Americana.” Insider. May 7, 2017. https://www.businessinsider.com/photos-us-confederacy-americana-brazil-2017-5

Soodalter, Ron. “The Confederados.” America’s Civil War 26, no. 4 (September 2013): 60–65.

Simmons, Charles Willis. “Racist Americans in a Multi-Racial Society: Confederate Exiles in Brazil.” The Journal of Negro History 67, no. 1 (April 1982): 34–39, https://doi.org/10.2307/2717759.