UM PARAÍSO ESCRAVISTA NA AMÉRICA DO SUL: RAÇA E ESCRAVIDÃO SOB O OLHAR DE IMIGRANTES CONFEDERADOS NO BRASIL OITOCENTISTA (original) (raw)

During the Civil War, when abolition became a reality in the United States, white southerners felt threatened by what they called 􏰀African despotism􏰁. According to them, the abolition would bring a new racial order, which would result in the reversion of racial codes. It means that African-Americans would lead the country and they would subjugate white southerners. The promises of reconstruct their lives in another slave society seemed to the confederates the possibility to no only continue to take the benefits of exploit slave workers, but also continue to live under racial politics that they were familiar with. Besides, Brazilian Emperor gave a lot of incentives to those willing to immigrate, like free land. Thus, thousands of confederates start to immigrate to countries like Cuba, México, Honduras, Argentina, and Brazil. However, the confederates realized that Brazil would not be their new racial paradise. The apparent racial integration, the social assimilation of freed blacks, what was considered excessive, and the racial mixing made the immigrants wonder if Brazil could really be their new home. Through information available in books, memoirs and specially letters send to their friends and relatives in the U.S., this article will discuss the views of these white Americans on race, especially racial mixing, and the social place of freed blacks in Brazilian slave society.