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resolved via a huge influx of American ex-slaves. The belligerent Afro-Brazilian insur-
gencies would be undermined through the calming cultural impact of thousands of “do-
cile” American ex-slaves and the flooding of Brazil with another form of labor.
Webb'ssolutionarguedforimmediateexpatriationofUSblackstoAmazoniainorder
to “render Brazil the richest among kingdoms of the Earth.” As he put it: “The African
slave trade can never again supply the Negro labor alone suited to the region, and white
labor is quite out of the question.” Webb proposed that the United States should initially
pay for the transportation of former slaves and North American black freemen to the
Amazon, where Brazil would supply the lands, about one hundred acres per colonist.
The costs inherent in the immigration (transportation, land costs, etc.) could be defrayed
by the income generated by the products of the “apprenticeship” of several years (up to
ten). After a time, black immigrants could take up Brazilian citizenship with the rights
modelduetotheprejudicethatprevailedwithintheUnitedStates.“TheUS,”saidWebb,
would be “blessed by his [African American] absence and the riddance of a curse which
has well nigh destroyed her.”
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Webb's ambitious plan was deflected by Seward, whose mild response emphasized a
decision to resolve the US slavery question within the nation—a policy turnaround from
the previous postures of the administration and the program Seward himself had out-
lined earlier. Further, these extravagant plans, coupled with machinations of US entre-
preneurs in countries of the upper Amazon, Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador, contributed to a
certain coolness and obstructionism in Brazilian diplomacy toward an Amazon-Americ-
anduprisingsinBrazil,theideaoftheinfusionofahugepopulationof“free”blackswas
alarming, especially since racial ideas of the day suggested that they hampered modern
development.Inanycase,thisparticularAmericanambitionfortheAmazonwastabled,
as the United States was caught up in reconstruction and assassinations while Brazil and
its allies devoted themselves to the crushing of Paraguay.
These “American Amazon” schemes did not bear much fruit, but the development of
such programs occurred at the highest levels within the US government, were promoted
by its most august scientific institutions, and were widely publicized at the time. While
the purpose was to “offshore” US racial problems through state-mediated programs jus-
tified by Confederate Manifest Destiny or a New World Liberia, the next iterations were
basedonadventurersandentrepreneursandcarriednovirtuouscolonialsocialgloss,but
rather incarnated the sparer lines of resource imperialism and speculations.
American Adventurers and the Republic of Poets
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