The Elusive Eden: Frank McMullan's Confederate Colony in Brazil (review)

88CIVIL WAR HISTORY American merchant marine. "The American flag, which in the 1850's had flown over almost as many merchant ships as the British, was nearly swept from the sea, a blow from which the United States merchant service did not recoveruntil 1918"(p. 160). The raiders destroyed about two hundred ships at a loss estimated between $15 and $25 million. Consequently, investors, insurance companies, and the federal government lost interest in a merchant fleet. American shippers sought registration with foreign countries and the American merchant marine nearly disappeared from the high seas. We have, then, two reprints about a minor phase of the Civil War from which we may draw for larger insights. W. Wayne Smith Indiana University of Pennsylvania The Elusive Eden: Frank McMullan 's Confederate Colony in Brazil. By William Clark Griggs. (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1987. Pp. xi, 218.) In late January 1867, the small English brig Derby sailed from Galveston Harbor with 154 passengers, leaving Reconstruction Texas and heading for Brazil. Led by 31 -year-old Frank McMullan, who had served earlier as an officer under the filibuster William Walker, these Southerners (all but two were Texans) hoped to create a new South based upon slavery, agriculture , and abundant land. Like a number of other Southerners they had determined to find this agricultural Eden in Latin America. The McMullan emigres encountered many difficulties in theirjourney to Eden. The brig Derby was wrecked in a storm off the Cuba coast. Passage was then secured on another vessel, the Mariposa, heading for New York City, but another storm forced her ashore in Virginia. The storm lifted sufficiently to allow completion of the voyage to New York, but the passengers had to wait a month in the city until another vessel arrived to take them to Brazil. The weary Texans finally reached Rio de Janeiro in May 1867. From Rio the colonists moved up the Sao Lourence river in the Sao Paulo province to the land grant provided by the government. Difficulties continued, however. The death of McMullan four months after arrival left a leadership vacuum that was followed by a power struggle among the colonists, food and supplies promised by the government were late in arriving , and markets for the colonists' agricultural produce failed to materialize . By 1870 all of the original McMullan colonists had moved off their grant lands. One-third of them returned to the United States; the others remained in Brazil, most of them joining other exiles north of Sao Paulo near Santa Barbara. Here some of the McMullan colonists made a lasting BOOK reviews89 impression upon Brazilian life. One, Thomas McKnight, introduced the moldboard plow to Brazil. Others in the group established the first Baptist church in Brazil. The present study of the McMullan colony is an outgrowth of a Texas Tech doctoral dissertation. The author, a descendant of the McMullan family, has done an outstanding job in tracing the major events of this southern colonization effort. The research is thorough and the narrative is clearly written. The volume would have greater value if the author had provided more comparison with other efforts at Confederation colonization . Too, it would be informative to know more about the reaction ofthe Brazilians themselves to such efforts. These, however, are only minor criticisms and should not detract from the overall value of the work. Ralph A. Wooster Lamar University Advice After Appomattox: Letters to Andrew Johnson, 1865-1866. By Brooks D. Simpson, LeRoy P. Grafand John Muldowny. Special Volume No. 1 of the Papers of Andrew Johnson. (Knoxville: The University of Tennessee Press, 1987. Pp. xxvi, 259. $29.95 and $14.95.) The notice that this is "Special Volume No. 1 of the Papers of Andrew Johnson," appears on the title page, but it is given no further explanation. Unlike other volumes of presidential papers which emphasize letters sent, this volume contains letters received by President Johnson. Thirty-eight letters from Salmon P. Chase, Carl Schurz, Benjamin C. Truman, Harvey M. Waterson, and Ulysses S. Grant form solicited and unsolicited reports to Johnson on conditions in the South. Appendixes offer several additional letters, and almost as an afterthought the editors included "the only public record...