Americana, São Paulo
Americana is a municipality located in the Brazilian state of São Paulo. It is part of the Metropolitan Region of Campinas. The population is 229,322 in an area of 133.91 km². The original settlement developed around the local railway station, founded in 1875, and the development of a cotton weaving factory in a nearby farm. After 1866, several former Confederate citizens from the American Civil War settled in the region. Following the Civil War,... Show more slavery was abolished in the United States. In Brazil, however, slavery was legal until 1888, making it a particularly attractive location to former Confederates, among whom was a former member of the Alabama State Senate, William Hutchinson Norris.Around three hundred of the Confederados are members of the Fraternidade Descendência Americana. They meet quarterly at the Campo Cemetery.The city was known as Vila dos Americanos until 1904, when it...