Women in the Americas in early modern North America. Throughout the Americas, bondage existed—in warmer climates, where plantation systems developed, or in the northern areas, where women were either transported as criminals or worked as indentured servants. As early as the 1530s, Portugal began using slave labor in Brazil to work sugarcane plantations. Initially, the Portuguese used indigenous people as slaves, but in 1574, the crown decreed that unless the native people were cannibals, already slaves, or were spoils of a "just war", they could not be enslaved. The Spanish also used native people as forced labor, but because under the "encomienda" system, neither
1st Summit of the Americas 1st Summit of the Americas The First Summit of the Americas was convened in Miami, Florida, United States, on December 9–11, 1994. This summit was the first of a series of events for leaders from countries of the Americas. From across North and South America thirty-four nations met in Miami and agreed to create Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). All countries were welcome to participate except for Cuba. Cuba was the only country not invited to participate in Miami. The Summit of the Americas accepted a Declaration of Principles to aid in the process of discussing a continent