Encomienda was a Spanish labor system that rewarded conquerors with the labor of particular groups of subject people. It was first established in Spain following the Christian recovery of their territories under Muslim rule, and it was applied on a much larger scale during the Spanish colonization of the Americas and the Spanish Philippines. Conquered peoples were considered vassals of the Spanish monarch; the Crown awarded an encomienda as a grant to a particular individual. In the conquest era of the sixteenth century, the grants were considered to be a monopoly on the labor of particular groups of indigenous peoples, held in perpetuity by the grant holder, called the encomendero, his descendants. Encomiendas devolved from their original Iberian form into a form of "communal" slavery. In the encomienda, the Spanish Crown granted a person a specified number of natives from a specific community but did not dictate which individuals in the community would have to provide their labor. Indigenous leaders were charged with mobilizing the assessed labor.

In turn, encomenderos were to ensure that the encomienda natives were given instruction in the Christian faith and Spanish language, protect them from warring tribes or pirates. In return, the natives would provide tributes in the form of metals, wheat, pork, or other agricultural products. With the ousting of Christopher Columbus, the Spanish crown sent a royal governor, Fray Nicolás de Ovando, who established the formal encomienda system. In many cases natives were forced to do hard labor and subjected to extreme punishment and death if they resisted. However, Queen Isabella I of Castile forbade slavery of the native population and deemed the indigenous to be "free vassals of the crown". Various versions of the Leyes de Indias or Laws of the Indies from 1512 onwards attempted to regulate the interactions between the settlers and natives. Both natives and Spaniards appealed to the Real Audiencias for relief under the encomienda system. Encomiendas had been characterized by the geographical displacement of the enslaved and breakup of communities and family units, but in Mexico, the encomienda ruled the free vassals of the crown through existing community hierarchies, the natives were allowed to keep in touch with their families and homes.

This was not true in all areas as in some parts of Hispaniola and Guatemala entire regions were depopulated by enslavement. Unlike in the case of the enslavement of Africans, in which adult males were enslaved, the majority of indigenous slaves under encomienda were women and children; the abolition of the Encomienda in 1542 marks the first major movement towards the abolition of slavery in the Western world. However, coerced labor continued in other forms throughout the Spanish colonies; the heart of encomienda and encomendero lies in the Spanish verb encomendar, "to entrust". The encomienda was based on the reconquista institution in which adelantados were given the right to extract tribute from Muslims or other peasants in areas that they had conquered and resettled; the encomienda system traveled to America as the result of the implantation of Castilian law over the territory. The system was created in the Middle Ages and was pivotal to allow for the repopulation and protection of frontier land during the reconquista.

The encomienda established a relationship similar to a feudal relationship, in which military protection was traded for certain tributes or by specific work. It was prevalent among military orders that were entrusted with the protection of frontier areas; the king intervened directly or indirectly in the bond, by guaranteeing the fairness of the agreement and intervening militarily in case of abuse. The encomienda system in Spanish America differed from the Peninsular institution; the encomenderos did not own the land. The system did not entail any direct land tenure by the encomendero; this right was formally protected by the crown of Castile because the rights of administration in the New World belonged to this crown and not to the Catholic monarchs as a whole. The first grantees of the encomienda or encomenderos were conquerors who received these grants of labor by virtue of participation in a successful conquest; some receiving encomiendas in New Spain were not conquerors themselves but were sufficiently well connected that they received grants.

In his study of the encomenderos of early colonial Mexico, Robert Himmerich y Valencia divides conquerors into those who were part of Hernán Cortés' original expedition, calling them "first conquerors", those who were members of the Narváez expedition, calling them "conquerors". The latter were incorporated into Cortes' contingent. Himmerick designated as pobladores antiguos a group of undetermined number of encomenderos in New Spain, men who had resided in the Caribbean region prior to the Spanish conquest of Mexico. Holders of encomiendas included women and indigenous elite. Doña Maria Jaramillo, the daughter of Doña Marina and conqueror Juan Jaramillo, received income from her deceased father's encomiendas. Two of Moctezuma's daughters, Doña Isabel Moctezuma and her younger sister, Doña Leonor Moctezuma, were granted extensive encomiendas in perpetuity by Hernan Cortes. Doña Leonor Moctezuma married in succession two Spaniards, left the encomiendas to her daughter by her second husband. Vassal Inca rulers appointed after the conquest sought and were granted encomiendas.

The status of humans as wards of the trustees under the encomienda system served to "define the

Salem Chapel is a former Congregational church, located on Hunslet Lane, West Yorkshire, England. It is situated opposite the former Tetley's Brewery. Built in 1791 by the Rev Edward Parsons, Salem is the oldest surviving non-conformist chapel in Leeds city centre. Salem Chapel is a Grade II listed building and its distinctive curved façade was added in 1906; the historic chapel was the birthplace of Leeds United Football Club in 1919. Salem’s hall was the venue for a public meeting in which Leeds City F. C. was disbanded over financial misdemeanours, Leeds United F. C. was formed. The chapel was closed as a place of worship in 2001; the psychologist and writer Reverend Harry Guntrip preached the last sermon. In 2009, the building was purchased by Professor Adam Beaumont, founder of telecommunications company aql. Beaumont funded the renovation and restoration of the chapel, which now houses aql’s head offices, as well as data centres, an exhibition space, a bar and a 370-seat glass-floored auditorium.

On 17 November 2011, Salem Chapel was awarded a blue plaque by the Leeds Civic Trust in recognition of its architectural and religious significance. The plaque was unveiled by the Lord Mayor of Councillor Rev'd Alan Taylor; as of April 2018, Salem Chapel is home to the Estonian Consulate for the North of England and the Isle of Man. Salem Chapel is used to host the launch of Government initiatives. In February 2015, Salem Chapel hosted then-Prime Minister David Cameron and then-Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne for talks as part of the government's Northern Powerhouse proposal. Osborne returned to Salem Chapel in February 2017 with Lord Jim O'Neill to launch the inaugural Northern Powerhouse Partnership report. In January 2018, it was used to launch Transport for the North's Strategic Transport Plan to transform transportation in the North of England over the next 30 years. In addition to Cameron, Osborne and O'Neill, Salem Chapel's auditorium has hosted other notable figures for events and talks, including Britain's first astronaut Helen Sharman OBE and Bas Lansdorp, CEO and co-founder of Mars One, as part of 2018's Leeds International Festival.

The launch of Leeds: Cradle of Innovation, a book on the history of innovation in the city by urban geographer Rachael Unsworth and local historian Steve Burt, was held at Salem Chapel on 14 June 2018. It is among the venues used for Leeds Digital Festival and Leeds International Festival and has hosted the annual FinTech North since the event's inception. 1784–1833 – Rev Edward Parsons 1833–1841 – Rev John Ely 1841–1866 – Rev Wm. Hudswell 1866–1875 – Rev Henry Tarrant 1876–1890 – Rev George Hinds 1891–1929 – Rev Bertram Smith. S. Guntrip 1944–1946 – Rev Vernon Sproxton 1946–1954 – Rev J. Norman Beard 1949–1956 – Rev Reg. Williams 1954–1968 – Rev Norman Charlton 1966–1968 – Rev Jean Mortimer 1969–? – Rev Graham J. Cook 1976–1982 – Rev Adrienne Savage Also associated with Salem, the ministers of the South Leeds Team: 1968–1973 – Rev Alice H. Platts 1971–1976 – Rev Tony Addy 1973–? – Rev Geoff. Rodham 1977–? – Rev Simon Swailes 1981–? – Rev Colin E. Richards Architecture of Leeds List of places of worship in the City of Leeds

Ina Meschik is an Austrian alpine snowboarder. She represented her nation Austria in two editions of the Olympic Games, claimed a bronze medal in parallel giant slalom at the 2010 FIS Junior World Championships in Lake Wanaka, New Zealand and fourth-place finishes at the FIS World Cup series. Meschik is a member of ASKÖ Landskron Ski Club in Villach, under her personal coach Tom Weninger. Meschik made her official debut, as a 19-year-old, at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, where she finished sixth in the women's giant slalom, losing out to Germany's Anke Karstens in the classification final match by sixty-four hundredths of a second. At the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Meschik qualified for two alpine snowboarding events by achieving fourth-place finishes from the FIS World Cup series in Rogla, in Carezza, Italy. In the women's giant slalom, Meschik improved her prior performance in Vancouver with a fourth-place finish, but narrowly missed the bronze medal by a full second behind host nation's Alena Zavarzina in their small final match.

Three days in the inaugural women's slalom, Meschik did not match her stellar stint from the giant slalom, as she lost the quarterfinal match to Germany's Amelie Kober by a hundredth-second margin. NBC Olympics Profile FIS Ski Profile Ina Meschik on Twitter