Special; The Last Confederates

Production no Mississippi TV the last Confederate blank. Twenty seven forty five directors Edward Cohen Bruce Riedel and they'd recorded you in twenty seven thousand nine hundred eighty four. You go oh. Yes you're right. Oh well you see little kids who were my grandparents on my mother's side were from Gonzales Texas. And

on my father's side from Chester County South Carolina the father came from Georgia my mother from Waco Texas. I'm proud of having Brazil as my mother country and the United States of my grandmother country. Be.

Back after the Civil War the South was a conquered land. Its way of life as dead as Greece or Rome. Be would be to these Southerners life in their native land was no longer tolerable reconstruction. They felt it was a new form of war being waged upon the South in every State of the dead Confederacy. The angriest and the bitterest form to color the sation societies so their few possessions said goodbye to friends and family and sailed to see new homes under foreign flags. And while immigrants were streaming from Europe to the land of opportunity thousands of Americas unreconstructed Confederates were doing everything they

could to leave it. Well my dad and SAS just came and after the close of the civil war because they were they would rather leave the country than pledge allegiance to the federal government that they had fought over for yes they hated the Yankees so they wanted to live with honor the their conception of honor. And then a lot of people felt that the only way to do it was to get up and leave you. My great grandfather and six other of my relatives together with a hundred fifty all told made up one group and cards that come to Brazil by a DAV propaganda that their visiting government were doing in the United States to bring to

Brazil. They know how on takeoff and landing and when they came down she didn't mend the weave never asked and then she never taught they never talked very much about. How it was on the boat. I would like to have known how on the ship how they came down the hardships they had they must have had. They went from Galveston Texas stopping to New Orleans where they picked up one of my grandfathers. And they proceeded on to the Gulf of Mexico around Florida but off the coast of Cuba they had a storm it was called the Derby it was a brig. It was old and it was hard to handle and they ended up on a rock on the beach in Cuba early state about a month and then they thanks to the help of the Cuban people they were able to gather funds and enough clothes they lost everything to get back to United States and start over again.

On route to New York to charter another ship the battered emigrants encountered another storm and were forced to put in off Norfolk Virginia and the shadow of Fort Monroe where their leader Jefferson Davis was being held in a cell in Iraq. Arriving in New York. Among them former enemies they were objects of curiosity. The men and their Confederate gray clothes of the women as the New York Times said. Relics of a final day. Finally they set sail and after a two month journey arrived in Rio de Janeiro Brazil where they were met with bands the Emperor parades bands playing Dixie and presented with almost thousands of acres of cotton when they settled in this vicinity. My mother was 11 years old my father 18 and 8 years later they were married.

Having met on the ship and made this journey to Brazil no doubt that life was very difficult in those days and coming to Brazil that conditions of the trip down here and conditions in Brazil one of the houses they had to live in it didn't have a new home they had to build their homes and they built a home. Well they live. Right here from the huts I presume. The Confederates exiled them so. Not only to Brazil but throughout the world to Venezuela Jamaica British Honduras to Egypt and Japan. Some never surrendering crossed the Rio Grande with their Confederate cannon to fight in Mexico. Another civil war for Embro Maximillian against Benito Juarez. Again on the losing side now twice

defeated many confederates in Mexico again. Some. Trends by the Emperor's propaganda. Goaded by memory and crying from Mexico. From you or will. They say to you hold as fire follows a bile solve a Mason-Dixon line when in Brazil. Probably the most outlandish thing was the settle in the tropical rain forest of the Amazon jungle. I still can see. For. Endless rounds one. Isolated one from a.

Distance of like which emigrants who had bitterly abandoned their whole Now were overwhelmed with memories of it. Most gave up and returned to the United States. Those who remained. Were absorbed into the Amazon cult. And nothing but. Think. And. Write to will remains to identify them. Throughout the rest of Brazil colony after a couple they failed on the hard realities of exhaustion and despair. One of all the colonies of confederates the only one to survive was in the Highlands around some powerful here disillusioned but refusing to return to their native land. The tattered remnants of the failed colonies gathered around the farm of Colonel William Norris. Well my great grandfather picked out this part of the country because it looks so much like Alabama where he came from

and the rolling country and saw it's just like Alabama. You see Colonel Norris well. Decided that some of the land that longtime my grandfather had decided should be him in a dispute over land. Lillian Smith's grandfather was blinded in one eye by James Jones was great Greg but also redoubtable Arnold Morris and nearly killed a man. All those things nothing happened because he had very sharp tending to his case it was a case that lyeth ended too but he was so sharp. And. Got very impressed and the judge. He said this old man being prosecuted on account. Yes. He is a fighter. He fought in their Mexican-American War he took part in the Revolutionary War way before you were born. But

nobody knew the difference is that he fought for the independence of the United States and the breast of the judge very rich. The McFadden family my father and mother. Visited by a recent arrival from the United States after all were seated at the table my father proceeded to ask the blessing and they were just about to start the meal when suddenly my probably turned to this gentleman and said Mr So-and-so just where did you say you are from. He named the city and state which happened to be somewhere. My dad politely said excuse me I have other things to attend to. I'll see you later. He refused to sit with a yank. The Confederates had lost the war fought in large part over slavery. At

the time of the emigration slavery still existed in Brazil. Well when they came here that was slavery in Brazil and so much dead by slaves. My grandfather had slaves but it was a dying institution and the Confederates did not bring their slaves with them. They didn't go down there for flavor. That was that was not the reason for immigration. They knew that slavery was on the way out even though there were still some around until 1888. But the end of slavery in Brazil rekindled the old fatal passion in one anachronistic immigrant or with many thousands of people going down there we had some oddball to one fanatic slavery fanatic with among our colony apparently tried to assassinate one of the Brazilian senators on the eve of emancipation. It was in final emancipation he was such a pro-slavery man. And when you think this was in 1888 the

man was really lost in antiquity it was that he was out of touch. Didn't 7 Do you by the first railroad train came this far. I was at the new end of the track and the Emperor got off the train and said Americans Yeah the railroad I promise you. On one occasion one of his visits. The question was brought up about the fact that these Americans left the United States and officially no one had a passport and very few if any had any sort of a document such as a register proving their name or whether one way him. So he made an offer. Supposing I issue a decree considering all of

you'll Brazilian citizens unless you'll state in writing that you do not want to become residents that are none. No one made this statement in writing so they all became Brazilian cities. It's many many years later. I remember criticising my dad far. Giving his opinion on what the Brazilian government should do and what you shouldn't do. And I said Dad you misremember go. We Brazilians can criticize our government but you Americans know. He immediately stated came back to me he said Remember I am more of a Brazilian than you will ever be because I was made a resilient by the Emperor of Brazil and that can never happen to you. There were a lot of Americans around that time it was a large colony.

Then there was suddenly this preaching Sundays we call them. They were very. They they were something in our lives. In the large cities of Rio de Janeiro traditions quickly eroded. But in the region around the Macondo the city of the Confederates for. The children and grandchildren of the emigrants did not assimilate into the Brazilian culture. Their parents made every effort to preserve their traditions. And their supper. Up to a certain age.

I didn't feel Brazilian The whole thing is I was since I was born in hand Brazil and raised up among Brazilians and up to the age of seven. I didn't speak Portuguese. I knew the story. Laura less what people said but I myself didn't speak because we only spoke English at home although my father preferred speaking Portuguese and many Americans didn't speak English even some of my cousins we don't speak Portuguese they could understand and they wouldn't. We had speak Portuguese but a nice family no. We had to speak. We spoke only English at home. As we do now. Because our mother. I would hold what I don't speak Portuguese. But all of the McCall how much cooler at the time was all in English. Don't ever take an english be she spelling and

grammar arithmetic geography it all in English. If they if they are not saying really they feel like family because when the Americans came out here late they were not related some more of course and there were ones who were not related live so married and kept up such a close friendship that it was the same as being family because everybody out spoke Portuguese and whoever spoke Inglis met Sammy Of course it was all always a difference of religion you see we were all Protestant and Brazilians in the time that I was a child they were Catholics but Catholics and there was no getting around. Yeah and yeah they taught sure that all Protestants from going to the hot place called me out of our mental list. And that just it would all come you know and a preacher or one shall die or the

Methodist preacher would go sometimes oh oh oh. Passion of a girl most of the time or bad just OK I'm going to buy fabric but hold my breath and then she made a great point here. Difference in religion so much so that she hoped the children who got married would marry practiced happens early marriage. Catholics. At that. Time there was no in the vision of State and Church in Brazil. So non-Catholics could not be buried and the municipal sun that there is they couldn't have been there that some of their newly And later on the child then was raised seal was burial. And so it was brought to this blaze that I asked they asked permission to flick bare the charred ghost of their lives and then made the France around the graves because

of the robbery and that was the beginning of the sin and then everybody else made the point and they still do make a point to be in there. Here in 1930 Brazil was racked by civil of Augustus then President attempted to increase the powers of the central government. The state of some pollo with most of the Confederates had settled rebel. One of the one of the great ironies of this is the 1932 revolution in Brazil. My family had moved from some pall of the real which was the federal state to Washington D.C. of Brazil the Civil War broke out there between the southern states some pollo real Granted school and a couple others against the federal government. State's rights was still important to these people so much so that they

joined the Army in great numbers of the state of some power saying that they were going to send their home of the federal armies marching toward the city of Compton as an Americano that would ruin their main route. And today they were there. They've been it's been noted in Brazilian who through their their part in that war they lost that war too they were pretty good at joining losing causes. It was in that boat that this side of the revolution and I had three brothers in their revolution one of them got Kaleb have Lina's. Today's generation of descendants are not rebels. They and their Confederate ancestors have brought to Brazil the talents the temperate on Pedro had foreseen. The city the Confederates founded Americana is today in another

historical irony a major cotton textile center and bears the Confederate flag on its coat of arms. The Confederates founded eight universities and the educational methods they introduced are used throughout Brazil. I think my neighbors learned Marts with my grandfather much more than they have learned with us now. Because when my grandfather came out yeah in the States I think the used to work much more advanced than we were working and the neighbors learned a lot. Now the neighbors around here are just about like we are in 1890 some 500 Confederate families lived in Americana. Today most descendants have had a married adopted Brazilian customs and moved away. The Americans Bretton Woods the beard you know married Brazilians and

they all backed the group resilience. The old Americans. Very few of them live here now more so than have died. One generation back when our young. I thought that's in that area would run aground and nobody would be here to take care of it. I thought it would come to an end but it didn't. People can be proud of the descendants of Americans. And they're glad the big chance to get together and say that can prove that they never never sell. And I believe that of you know go on better and better. It won't die down. Parents came the time of the civil war because they this side lost so they had to come to Brazil. And Yan busy al that last wasn't easy.

Descendants of the immigrants who came to America to discover their heritage and their mother countries. The descendants of the emigrants who left America. Now fourth generation Brazil to find their roots in the United States. I had heard all my life about the United States and my father would tell me all about his childhood and Alabama. And so I had where the impression looked like I was going back home after a hundred Yeahs absence. And when I went to the States for the first time there was a feeling I felt like I was a family were the people in the street. I was among my people. That's the way I felt.

I was a consul in St. Paul and seventy one and one that was sitting there in the full name Jody Powell came in the office and was looking for things for his boss. Do you have to be governor of Georgia. And. I suggested since he was from Georgia you go out and visit my relatives the Confederate cemetery. Jimmy Carter is there when everyone by now knows a deep dyed southern culturally every other way. So then in the middle of his very fine address one of the best I think you ever again. He stopped and actually began to cry. It was too much for him to see these people these Southern faces as he called them the lost tribes of Israel. Standing in front of it and there we walked all over the cemetery and there Rosalynn Carter said to me that

she had said the sentence. Better read out than it is and that she her name was Smith farmer Lee Smith from Texas and she wondered if perhaps we were related. When Jimmy Carter came down he cried when he got up to speak he said to thanks to these people from my country and they came down and saw for the way they did. Because it didn't suffer a lot. To offer me where I was. Well to the end it was worth.

Four times a year they meet here they visit tell the old stories and care for the graves of their ancestors who left their homes forever lived out their lives under strange constellations and finally were laid to rest here their graves shadowed by pine grown from Alabama seed and a separate one from the home.