Naval Warfare in a Slave Empire: Brazil as an Atlantic Battlefront of the US Civil War

In the 1860s, the U.S. Civil War spilled out of its national borders onto Brazil’s Atlantic coast, underscoring the country’s position as another battlefront in a hemispheric crisis over the future of slavery. As North American ships passed through the ports of Pernambuco, Bahia, Santos, or Santa Catarina, either to refuel, land prisoners, or gather provisions, they challenged Brazil's neutrality in the U.S. Civil War while inspiring Brazilians to consider the prospect of slave emancipation. Often en route to the Pacific, Confederate cruisers and Union merchant ships bombarded each other, captured and towed war prizes at will, set vessels ablaze, recruited crewmen, and even drew the Brazilian navy into the crossfire of sectional clashes. The most significant naval conflict for U.S.-Brazilian relations occurred in 1864, when the USS Wachusett captured the CSS Florida on Bahian waters, causing a diplomatic incident between the two countries.

Most of those who first encountered North American ships and their crews in Brazil were of African descent. In 1863, for example, black engineer and future abolitionist André Rebouças boarded the USS Mohican to negotiate its stay in Santa Catarina after the warship arrived in pursuit of the CSS Florida and CSS Alabama. This paper examines the development of sectional warfare in Brazil and its impact on the history of transatlantic abolitionism. It shows that North American ships opened a new interface with Atlantic geopolitics and explores how Brazilian elites and afro-descendants wrote themselves into different sides of international disputes over slavery.