@legalquilts @Scoffin
4/4 At the time it was. They still had slavery. That was the main draw, when you get down to it.

But I still don't see any other attraction for them at that point. Today, it's a beautiful tourist mecca. Then, it had mosquito-borne jungle diseases, no infrastructure, & people who didn't speak your language or share your religion. They couldn't even get buried in the local cemeteries (the #Confederados were Protestant, the locals were Catholic).

Their migration was one of the things that made me study this family group more than others. They didn't make sense to me.

The #Brazilian King at the time promised them ships, houses, & riches. He wanted "Yankee Know-How" to help him build his trains and infrastructure. They felt cheated.

But their entire migration was based on some ad in a newspaper-- the equivalent today of uprooting yourself to a new country, based on one single meme. Not genius on their part, but maybe it was due to "anger-plus-desperation." Idk.

@legalquilts @Scoffin
3/4 After the #CivilWar , the entire family went to #Brazil. There was a large movement of disenfranchised #Confederates who tried to start a colony there. Some stayed, and some (like my ancestors) eventually came back to the USA. The ones who stayed became known as #Confederados .

There is a diary by one of the teenage girls who went with the migrants, Julia Keyes. Her story is amazing in what she endured and how they built the settlement.

But it's also very sad, in that every mention of local Black people gives them no name, no personality. Whereas her white friends are named every time, and you get to know them. It showed me the mindset that allowed to #slavery-- Black people were just scenery, no more important than a horse pulling a cart.😥

(Link to University of Alabama's downloadable "Keyes Diary")
https://cdm17336.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/u0003_0000813/id/2764 

#Genealogy #FamilyHistory #FamilyTree #History #CivilWarHistory #Confederacy