“This is the best farming country in the world, what a pity it has been cursed in the habitating race.”

Keywords: Confederates in Brazil, exiles, slavery, cotton, agriculture, South America, Civil War, memory
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Saturday
Session Start / End Time: 2/26/2022 09:40 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/26/2022 11:00 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 17

Abstract

This research examined the reasons why the Norris Colony in Americana/Santa Bárbara d’Oeste was able to flourish and the roles of different factors such as slavery by analyzing how crucial small-scale agriculture and new agricultural expertise were crucial in making Americana into the only surviving settlement in Brazil, while Confederates’ other colonies in Mexico, Venezuela, Egypt, and other parts of Brazil all failed. In addition to cotton planting know-how, Norris’ and of other settlers’ mastery of mechanized equipment seem to have contributed to the colony’s survival well into the twentieth century. Small scale farms (as opposed to bigger, plantation-style farms) where settlers put in their own labor instead of mass slave labor (which was formally banned in Brazil in 1888) coupled with ease of transport (the colony’s proximity to a railroad line) and especially the Confederados’ superior agricultural skills were instrumental in securing the survival of the colony. Previous works have surveyed many facets of this migration, but no work was conducted linking the colony’s survival to agriculture and use of slave labor.