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Johnny `Joãozinho'; Reb: The Creation and Evolution of Confederate Identity in Brazil

Lownes, Steven P
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu151501462582495

Abstract Details

2018, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Spanish and Portuguese.
"Johnny 'Joãozinho' Reb: The Creation and Evolution of Confederate Identity in Brazil" traces the cultural history of a group of Confederate emigres, now known as Os Confederados, that moved to Brazil after the Civil War to start a series of Confederate colonies in the land of the Southern Cross. While many of the emigrants returned to the United States after unsuccessfully attempting pioneer life in one of the last slave-holding societies in the western world, the few Confederates that remained joined together in an area near Santa Barbara d'Oeste, São Paulo. In Santa Barbara d'Oeste, they added new agricultural techniques and technology to the economy, and created educational reforms based upon their protestant religion, which impacted the country for years after. In the dissertation, I explore the impact that Confederate ideologies have had on the development of identity characteristics of the Confederados, and how these identity markers manifest themselves during various points over the course of more than 150 years. Due to the twenty-first century Confederados' denial that their ancestors were racist and that they came to Brazil due to the existence of slavery, I explore the validity of these claims by analyzing the role of intercultural and interracial relations throughout the history of the Confederate community in Brazil. I use the case study of the Confederados to explore similar processes in the United States and Brazil in their denial of racism and the way that this denial has manifested itself in different ways. Building on historian Jeffrey Lesser's work on immigrant communities in Brazil and Patrick Hogan's cognitive identity research on nationalism, I identify strategies and choices that have helped a small group of immigrant descendants to curate and recreate a Confederate sub-identity that at times contrasts with the dominant Brazilian identity, while referencing and performing for Confederate descendants in the U.S. South. I begin the exploration in chapter 2 by reviewing the history in both the United States and Brazil that led to thousands of ex-Confederates to move to Brazil. In this chapter, I analyze two Confederate scouts' narratives as they explore the possibility of emigrating. In chapter 3, I use two female Confederate emigres' narratives to understand the trials and tribulations of the first-generation Confederates in the land of the Southern Cross. In these two chapter, I investigate the role of community-building and the desire of the first-generation to recreate an Old South economy and society in Brazil, and how this idea inevitably failed. In chapter 4, I begin to look at the twentieth and twenty-first century Confederados through the definitive history of Confederate migration written by Judith MacKnight Jones, a descendant. Throughout her book, we see the way that the Confederate community developed in Santa Barbara d'Oeste and how the community began to dissolve due to opportunities presenting themselves outside of the region. In this same chapter, I analyze the way that the Confederados come together to perform Confederate identity during the Festa Confederada, an annual party and fundraiser. In the final chapter, I review physical and digital presences of Confederado identity in the presentation of themselves to the outside world.
Pedro Pereira (Advisor)
Rebecca Haidt (Committee Member)
Eugenia Romero (Committee Member)
289 p.
American History; Comparative; Cultural Anthropology; Foreign Language; Latin American History; Latin American Literature; Latin American Studies; Minority and Ethnic Groups; Modern Language
Confederados; Confederates; Brazil; Nationalism; Social Identity Theory; Judith MacKnight Jones; James Gaston; Ballard Dunn; Julia Keyes; Smith Ferguson; Festa confederada

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Lownes, S. P. (2018). Johnny `Joãozinho'; Reb: The Creation and Evolution of Confederate Identity in Brazil [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu151501462582495

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Lownes, Steven. Johnny `Joãozinho'; Reb: The Creation and Evolution of Confederate Identity in Brazil . 2018. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu151501462582495.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Lownes, Steven. "Johnny `Joãozinho'; Reb: The Creation and Evolution of Confederate Identity in Brazil ." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2018. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu151501462582495

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu151501462582495
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This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.