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Confederates in Brazil

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    Posted: 15-Sep-2007 at 12:37
Of the strange stories of the Americas, the Confederates in Brazil called my attention. It is not well known that at least 10.000 of them headed South and that theirs descendents still live in there, preserving some of the old South in the green land.
 
 
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Descendants of "Confederados" find Southern roots

By Dan Sewell
Associated Press

confederate
Civil War re-enactor Doug 'Bones' Jarrett kisses Anna Lee Carr DeMuzio's hand as she and other Brazilian youths vistit the Atlanta History Center Saturday, July 18, 1998, in Atlanta.
AP Photo
   MABLETON - Amid paper plates laden with barbecue, cole slaw and potato salad, the teen-agers struggled in halting English and bursts of Portuguese to describe finding the Southern roots their ancestors left behind more than 130 years ago.
   "We knew about the history, but now we have the details. Now we can imagine what their life was like, what they were like," said Joao Ferreira Padoveze, age 17.
   He is among five Brazilian youths who have spent the past month on a whirlwind tour of the homeland their great- or great-great grandparents abandoned after fighting for the Confederacy during the Civil War. Rather than remain in the war-devastated Reconstruction South, up to 10,000 Southerners headed to the truly Deep South - Brazil - to start new lives.
   Concerned that the assimilated younger generations of "Confederados" descendants were losing touch with their heritage, their families combined with Georgia members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans to put together this summer's trip as a pilot program meant to become a regular student exchange.
   The Brazilian youths have gotten heaping helpings of Southern hospitality and regional culture, old and new - from their first tastes of grits and participation in the Cordele Watermelon Festival to trips to outlet malls and theme parks.
   And the tour has been steeped in the history of the war that altered their families' history.
   They've visited a barrage of battlefield parks; Andersonville, site of an infamous war prison; the graves of Confederate heroes Gen. Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson; and had a personal tour of Richmond, Va., conducted by the great-grandson of Confederate cavalry leader Jeb Stuart.
   And they took part in the massive re-enactment this month of the climactic battle of the war, Gettysburg. Wearing gray uniforms like those of their ancestors, they slept on the ground, smeared black gunpowder on their faces, and raced into smoke and the sounds of withering cannon and gunfire in a re-enactment of the ill-fated Pickett's Charge.
   By previously drawn lot, the other three boys "died" during the charge, while Ricardo da Silva, 16, was allowed to make it "over the top" into the Union line, where, by re-enactment tradition, "the Yankees shook my hand and said, 'Good fight!"
   All in all, what was Gettysburg like?
   "Pre-tee Cool!" the four teen boys answered in unison.
   "We learned that (phrase) here," Joao explained with a smile.
   They also have pondered the reasons why their ancestors left what, Ricardo says enthusiastically, is "a beautiful country with friendly people."
   Historians say some Confederate exiles wanted to continue slavery on foreign lands, but many simply were hungry for a new frontier or feared retribution after losing the war.
   "I think my ancestors didn't want to be oppressed. After the war was over, they said, 'Why stay in this country?"' said Anna Lee de Muzio, 19, the lone female in the group.
   Her great-great grandfather, Albert Gallagher Carr, an Alabama native, fought in the Georgia campaign before moving after the war to Brazil, where Emperor Don Pedro II recruited Southerners for their agrarian, textile and educational expertise.
   Decked out in an antebellum hoop skirt for a barbecue Friday evening, she talked about watching the Gettysburg battle and imagining her ancestors in the Lost Cause.
   "Thinking about them, it was a big emotion," she said.
   Her father, Daniel de Muzio, heads the Brazilian chapter of Sons of Confederate Veterans. It's one of two overseas groups - the other is in Europe and includes the grand-nephew of the Andersonville prison camp commander hanged after the war - of the heritage organization, which still battles in this country the Confederate associations with slavery and racism.
   Daniel Coleman, a local S.C.V. leader who played host to two of the teens, had visited Brazil before the teens came here. He said attending one of the four-times-a-year festivals that are held in the Brazilian town called Americana by descendants of the Confederados was "the most Southern thing I've ever experienced."
   In a different land on a different continent, participants sang "Dixie," wore Confederate garb, and chattered in Portuguese as they celebrated their roots.
   Still ahead as the youths conclude their visit this week is a meeting with former President Jimmy Carter, who as Georgia governor visited Brazilian "Confederado" descendants.
   The youths, who watched on American TV as Brazil lost the World Cup soccer final, will attend an Atlanta Braves baseball game Tuesday night and learn to do the Braves' fans' "Tomahawk chop."
   "We like learning about baseball," said Raphael Rami, 16.
   "We bought baseballs and the baseball sticks," added Ricardo da Silva, still learning about the land of his ancestors
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