Exile for Slavery: Confederate Migration to Brazil After the Civil War

Talks on Tuesdays is a live event series bringing big ideas, real experts, and curious minds together - at your favourite local venues. Think thought-provoking lectures, audience questions, and post-talk mingling over drinks and dinner.

This isn’t a uni lecture. It’s a social, intelligent night out.Come alone or with friends, leave with something to talk about.

Event Schedule:

6.30pm Arrival & Doors Open

7pm Lecuture Starts

7.45pm Q&A

8pm Talk Concludes

8.30pm Event Closes.

*Please arrive close to 6.30pm

A La Carte menu and full bar available throughout the night - pay as you go.

Your Topic:

In the wake of the Civil War, a small but significant amount of ex-Confederates and their families moved to Brazil. This mini-migration was driven primarily by those individuals’ desire to continue living in a slave society, even if that required leaving the United States and learning a new language. Indeed, many of these migrants believed that the United States as they knew it had ceased to exist as a result of the Civil War. This talk will shine a light on a lesser known story of American out-migration to reflect on the centrality of white supremacy not only in the United States but more broadly in settler colonial nations and its relationship with the desire to drop out of mainstream society.

Your Speaker:

Sarah Walsh received her BA from Boston College and both her MA and PhD from the University of Maryland, College Park. She was a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Race and Ethnicity in the Global South ARC Project at the University of Sydney between 2013 and 2017. The following year she served as a Research Fellow in the COLOUR OF LABOUR Project at the Universidade de Lisboa. Most recently, she was a Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow in the Roots of Contemporary Issues Program at Washington State University. Her first book, The Religion of Life: Eugenics, Race, and Catholicism in Chile, was published by University of Pittsburgh Press in December 2021. She has also published articles in the Hispanic American Historical Review, Catholic Historical Review, History of Science, and the Journal of Iberian and Latin American Studies.