A company running ranches in Brazil has been fined 3.2 million dollars for keeping 180 of its workers in slavery on two of its properties. The country's High Labour Court said in a statement that the fine, against Lima Araujo Agropecuaria, was the biggest ever handed out in Brazil for the crime. Among the 180 enslaved workers freed from the two ranches in the northern state of Para were nine adolescents and a 14-year-old child. Brazil's Portuguese colonists introduced African slaves to the country from the 16th century to work in sugar plantations.The practice continued after independence in 1822 and was legally abolished in 1888.