This is America in Pursuit, a limited-run series from ThruLine and NPR.

I'm Randaabed Fattah.

Each week, we bring you stories about life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness in the U.S. that began 250 years ago.

In the aftermath of the Civil War, the country was being rebuilt.

Slavery was abolished.

Black men had won the right to vote.

And the rights and protections outlined in the Bill of Rights

were starting to include more and more people.

For some people, the changes happening in the country were just the start.

But for others, they felt like a step in the wrong direction.

They had lost relatives and friends to the conflict. Felt insecure, didn't know what to expect.

Many American Confederates who didn't want to rejoin the Union after the war left in search

of a place where they could recreate what they had lost, a world that still had slavery.

Slavery in Brazil was really stable.

And at that point, the Brazilian Empire was supporting Europeans and white Americans to come to Brazil.

Today on the show, Ramtin and I bring you the story of the Confederados, the white settlers from the Confederacy, who brought the antebellum south to southeastern Brazil,

forever changing the country's landscape. All that, after a quick break. I'm I'm The story of the Confederados goes back to the Civil War.

After years of bloody fighting, the Confederate states were

forced to surrender. They'd suffered massive losses. Their land was in ruins. Their future looked grim.

If we look at the letters and the documents, they were desperate. You know, they felt devastated.

This is Luciana Brito. She teaches history at the Federal University of Reconcavo de Bahia

in Brazil. Luciana says the end of slavery completely disrupted the economic and social way of

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