The Rikers

How one Confederate family never surrendered and rebuilt their lives in Brazil.

Crushed. Defeated. Humiliated. The Confederate States of America had wagered their blood, sweat and treasure on a bid for independence and failed. Now they would have to endure the unendurable: submission to “Yankee” rule. Most would pick up the pieces and put back together some semblance of ante-bellum life, rebuilding within the confines of a system they hated. But a small few would refuse to submit to the very end. These men and women would choose self imposed exile rather than humiliation. Many would flee to Brazil, where slavery was still legal and Emperor Dom Pedro II was more than happy to offer land grants, hoping to turn Brazil into a cotton exporter.

Robert Henry Riker

Robert Henry Riker was a sugar plantation owner and rail baron living in Charleston, South Carolina during the Civil War. He and his brother, David Riker, had also owned a large factory in Rikersville, an industrial town south of Charleston, which was likely filled with his employees. The war of course, naturally altered the trajectories of their lives. Robert was a great enthusiast for the war, and he used his resources to help construct an ironclad floating cannon battery to assault Fort Sumpter which he would participate in. Afterwards, it does not seem that he or his male children participated in any other major conflicts of the war. During the war, the hospital of Rikersville was appropriated for use as a prison camp for Union POWS. (In?)auspiciously the brother in law of Abraham Lincoln, Dr. George R. C. Todd, looks to have served as a doctor there. At the war’s end, Robert and his brother David would take their families and what wealth they had left and flee to Brazil, settling in the Amazonia region. He would die a several years later and would be buried in Santarém, Pará, Brazil. Robert would leave behind a thriving plantation estate. It would grow sugarcane and coco, had its own distillery and sawmill. He had a great family manor built, with door handles of porcelain.

David Bowman Riker

David Bowman Riker was the fifth child and third son of Robert Henry Riker. He was born in Charleston, SC in 1862, in the early phases of the war. When his father took him to Brazil, he was a six year old boy. Unlike many of his siblings, who would eventually repatriate to the United States, David was firmly rooted in Brazil.
He took to managing the great estate his father had left him with his brother, and even pioneered rubber tree planting turning a handsome profit before markets crashed. He would take as his second wife a native Brazilian, Raimunda Ferreira da Silva, a relation of the city mayor, with whom he would have 17 children, most whom would make it to adulthood. Despite being a young boy when he left the shores of South Carolina, he still spoke with a strong South Carolina accent which he passed on to his descendants. That was likely no accident, as he was still a proud Southern Patriot at heart. To him “Yankee families,” had flooded the South and ruined it. The pace of life in the United States was simply too fast paced for a man of antebellum heritage and Brazilian upbringing. He preferred slower pace of the Amazon. His children seemed to scatter across the hemisphere. Some following the course of their aunts and emigrating to the United States. Others would follow the path of their father and remain in Brazil. He would live to the ripe old age of 91. Buried in Santarém, he would ask that an American flag be placed over his coffin.

Mayflower Riker De Menezes

Mayflower Riker was born to David Riker and Raimunda Ferreira da Silva on March 8, 1912. One of the innumerable children born to David Riker, she led a relatively uneventful life. Unlike several of her siblings, she chose to remain in the Amazon and lived out her life in Santarém. She would marry Irapuan Teles De Menezes, a native Brazillian and bore at least two sons: Delano Riker Teles de Menezes and Dorian Riker Teles de Menezes.

Dorian Riker Teles de Menezes

Dorian Riker Teles de Menezes was born on June 24, 1945. He would move away from Santarém, Para and make his way east to the Brazilian state of Maranhão were he would embark on career in government and finance. He would work for the Bank of Brazil rising through the ranks over the course of a 30 year career to oversee operations over the entirety of the state of Maranhão as State Superintendent. During this time, he would find himself involved with local and state government. He would at various points be Chief of Staff of the Municipality of Imperatriz and State Deputy at the Legislative Assembly of Maranhão. During his stint in the state legislature of Maranhão, he was leader of the government and chaired several commissions, including commissions of Inquiry. Dorian is still alive and seems to live a semi-retired life outside of finance and government with his wife Maria Ivani Brasil de Menezes. He has four children and eight grandchildren.

Delano Riker Teles de Menezes

Delano Riker Teles de Menezes was born in 1946. Like his now long line of predecessors, he would set down roots in Santarém. Over the course of his 60 years, he would become a dedicated public servant. He would become vice-mayor of Santarém and work other offices such as Secretary of Agriculture for the Municipality of Santarém. In addition to his duties in local government, Delano was a major businessman. He owned a regional airline and just like his great-grandfather, derived a living from the land as a cattle rancher. He died in 2008.