You’ve heard of Confederates. But have you heard of “Confederados?” The terms are related, but as the variation in spelling suggests, there’s a linguistic and geographical difference.

It seems that a number of unhappy Confederates left the United States after our Civil War and emigrated to places where they could continue to own slaves. Among those places was Brazil, where such people were called “Confederados,” and where their descendants live to this day.

Two Brazilian historians, Luciana da Cruz Brito and Helena Maria Machado, will tell us the tale. It's a story that is not only compelling, but which also brings home an important point: African slavery was not just a problem in the United States, but throughout the Americas, and indeed, throughout much of the world.