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
Spanish missions in the Americas that might be available, explorers fostered relationships with the native people. This led to the colonization of the Americas. The Catholic Church was an essential part of both the Spanish and Portuguese Empires so as the empires spread to new lands, it was the duty of the King to be sure Christianity was spread into the New World. Often these empires used missions to teach indigenous people about Christian values that were practised in Europe at this time. These values did not only include religious teachings but cultural aspects of life such as dress and behavior. Missions were formed in