Confederates in the Tropics

A penetrating account of Confederates who fled to Mexico, Central america and South america, after the war to establish new communities and why almost all failed Charles Swett (1828-1910) was a prosperous Vicksburg merchant and small plantation owner who was reluctantly drawn into secession but then rallied behind the Confederate cause, serving with distinction in the Confederate Army. After the war some of Swett's peers from Mississippi and other southern states invited him to explore the possibility of settling in British Honduras or the Republic of Honduras. Confederates in the Tropics uses Swett's 1868 travelogue to explore the motives of would-be Confederate migrants' fleeing defeat and Reconstruction in the United States South. The authors make a comparative analysis of Confederate communities in Latin America and use Charles Swett's life to illustrate the travails and hopes of the period for both blacks and whites. Swett's diary is presented here in its entirety in a clear, accessible format, edited for contemporary readers. Swett's style, except for his passionate prefatory remarks, is a remarkably unsentimental, even scientific look at Belize and Honduras, more akin to a field report than a romantic travel account. In a final section, the authors suggest why the expatriate communities of white southerners nearly always failed, and follow up on Swett's life in Mississippi in a way that sheds light on why disgruntled Confederates decided to remain in or eventually to return to the U.S. South. Sharon Hartman Strom, Narragansett, Rhode Island, is professor of history at the University of Rhode Island. She is the author of Political Woman: Florence Luscomb and the Legacy of Radical Reform and Beyond the Typewriter: Gender, Class, and the Origins of Modern American Office Work. Frederick Stirton Weaver, Narragansett, Rhode Island, is professor emeritus of economics and history at Hampshire College. He is the author of Economic Literacy: Basic Economics with an Attitude and Latin America in the World Economy: From Mercantile Colonialism to Global Capitalism.