Almost every other year a newspaper publishes an article about how the Confederate flag still flies in a hidden place in the Brazilian countryside. In the years after the American Civil War, thousands of Southern families migrated to other countries, with Brazil becoming one of their main destinations. Settlements were established in different parts of the country, but it is only in Santa Bárbara d'Oeste, in the state of São Paulo, that a community of descendants survives to this day. This group, the so-called Confederados, with their annual parties and reenactments of American Civil War battles, has fascinated many people over the decades. Still, this is a little-known story among the wider public in either the United States or Brazil, and only recently has it been the object of more substantial scholarship. Confederate Exodus by Alan P. Marcus adds to this literature.
Divided into five chapters, the book presents various...
