[Rarebooks] FS: Brazilian Photo Album ca. 1910-1912: Area settled by U.S. Confederate Soldiers after Civil War, and others.

[A.E. Tishman]

Ezra and Josh of Aardvark Rare Books today offer this fascinating photo album put together by the Brazil Railway in approximately 1910-1912, when the government
was actively seeking colonists to farm the land the American-owned railroad had expropriated for 15 km. (about 9.3 miles) on either side of the tracks.

In October of 1912 - just before or right at the time the photographs were taken for this album, often poor landowners who scraped together a living selling wood, rose up against the settler/colonists in what was referred to as the Guerro de Contestado. Simultaneously a succession of several peripatetic messianic figures arose near the contested lands, and the already bloody conflict took on the additional fervor of a holy war. The Brazilian government, eager to gain and maintain wealth from the foreign investors (Percival Farquar owned the Brazilian Railway), sent in armed forces to put down these revolts amongst
the peasants. 

 				Brazilian Photo Album 1910-1912 <https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/eyzhx00ur3z637vmj8bsd/h?rlkey=owd1k628jlhhx5bxp5hb266vi&dl=0>

Brazil Railway Company. PHOTO ALBUM BRAZIL RAILWAY COMPANY (1910-1912)-- DEPARTAMENTO DE TERRAS CIDADES E COLONIZACAO. Brazil: Brazil Railway Company, ca. 1911-1912. Oblong album (12 1/2 in. x 9 1/2 in.), stringbound with two holes .Beige, thick card, or buckram (?) covers, quite stained, and spotted, with central printed paste-on label to front BRAZIL RAILWAY COMPANY/ DEPARTAMENTO DE TERRAS CIDADES E COLONIZACAO.

Appears to be a one-off effort on the part of the Brazil Railway Company officials (Farquar and Co.) to attract investors to thelands which they seized and controlled (15km on either side of the tracks) in Southern Brazil, perhaps a few years prior to the

Contestado rebellion (Guerra do Contestado), which occurred between 1912-1916,when active hostility and violence sbroke out between landowners and settlers (colonists), in which the military served to put down resistance and eliminate those hostile to colonization efforts on the part of the Brazil Railway.

The seventy-seven 5 in. x 7 in. black and white photographs include : "Americana" in the State of Sao Paulo (settled by

American Confederate soldiers after the Civil War who were earnestly recruited and offered land, quick citizenship, and other

perquisites); Additional photo settings: Casa de Fazenda "Boa Vista" Faxina, Estado de Sao Paulo; Casas Villa Nova. Also a number of houses of colonists (Casa de Colono), such as those of American J. Brackett, J. Reinbold of Argentina. The locations then shift to Carembehy, Estado de Parana and rye fields. Carembehy was one of the central locations of the Guerra do Contestado, and other photographs in the album are set in Nova Galicia, also in Estado de Parana; Rio das Antas; Rio do Peixe, and Rio Uruguay, near the border.

Photos also include those of fields of corn, cranberries, cotton, alfalfa, rice, even some "before and after" photographs such as the one entitled: "Mesmo terrena 4 mezes mais tarde", as well as a number of pictures of people plowing the land, driving mules. There are a number
of photos of Porcos Nacionales (National Pigs) and model pigsties, occupied by the large, black purebred hogs "importado pela Brazil Railway Co.”.



                                                                                                                                                     Brazilian Photograph Album.  $2900



Percival Farquhar (1865–1953) was an American investor and financier with extensive interests in Latin America and pre-Soviet Russia, including railways, mines, hotels, and restaurants...Farquhar's dream was to control all the 

railways of Latin America, in a version of manifest destiny. Visionary, controversial, and audacious, Farquhar became the greatest private investor in Brazil between 1905 and 1918...The beginning of the First World War in 1914, cut off his main source of resources and financing, and left Farquhar's already precarious empire—which had created the practicing of issuing debt based on debt—extremely indebted, causing it to crumble. His businesses reached bankruptcy by October 1914. His investors lost all of their capital, and Farquhar was ruined. ... a more detailed examination of Farquhar's businesses in Brazil shows that they frequently led to the deaths of thousands of native people, the ecological destruction of entire states,[13] abandoned railways, bankruptcies, and even civil wars... (Wikipedia) Besides the right to finish the project, the company also obtained from the government the right to explore a strip of land 15 km (9.32 mi) wide on each side of the railroad. The Company thus legally seized ownership of the land that it bordered and offered work to local families during the construction of the railroad. At the same time, the concession guaranteed that another associated company of the trust, the Southern Brazil Lumber & Colonization would have the rights to extract lumber and later resell the land. It was estimated that 8000 men had worked for the railroad at the time; workers coming from the urban populations of Rio de Janeiro, Santos, Salvador and Recife attracted by the possibility of high wages and other advantages. However, by the time the construction work was finished a large number of people were left without work or a place to go (as much land around the railroad was legally owned by the Trust) adding to unrest amid dissatisfaction. 





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					Subject to Previous Sale