Following the Civil War in the United States of America, colonies that were predominately ‘Yankee’ and Confederate sprang up in Brazil. In contrast to the subject's historiography, we seek to show how these colonies were the result of in the first case, the actions of Imperial diplomacy and in the second case, spontaneous interest by Southerners due to the existence of slavery in Brazil. This proposition is supported by primary sources, as they indicate the presence of significant teams of slaves in the Confederate colonies in Brazil, while slavery was prohibited in their ‘Yankee’ counterparts.