After an overall view of the subject about thirty years ago, the present reviewer guessed—not without some factual foundation—that about eight to ten thousand ex-Confederates left their old homes in the South following Appomattox and sought new ones in various parts of Latin America. Most of these distraught souls set up anew in Brazil and Mexico; fewer did so in Central America and northern South America. The present authors tell the story of the groups, totaling not more than a hundred persons, who followed promoters into Venezuela, almost exclusively into the great Orinoco River valley. Dr. Henry M. Price of Virginia had in 1865 received from Venezuelan officials a huge grant of land for colonization and certain commercial purposes. The Virginian and his promotional staff, with various titles, organized a company to pursue their objectives. The first group of expatriates, fifty-one in number, left New Orleans early in 1867 and arrived at Ciudad Bolívar about ten weeks later. Other groups smaller in number, and a few individuals, left their homeland later, all except a few of them for the same general destination. Shortly after arrival company directors, often with interference from local officials, conducted the immigrants to various regions for site-inspection purposes. The results were terribly disillusioning and diversionary—bad for the larger enterprise. In any event, causes too numerous to mention here spelled utter disaster for all concerned, and sooner or later all returned to the United States—now a land of milk and honey.
Through long, painstaking researches in many parts of the world, the genial authors have gathered loads of materials on every phase of their subject. Many readers will be forever grateful that they have filled an important gap in the ex-Confederate exodus to Latin America. Some may wish, however, that the treatise had come forth with much better editing.
