de Las Casas, Bartolomé 35He lived into his 90s at a time when such longevity was
truly remarkable. While Las Casas was, in many ways, a
“voice crying in the wilderness” of his own age and, in the
centuries that followed, his works have found a new reso-
nance in the modern era. While modern secular readers
may reject his profoundly Christian worldview, his tireless
eff orts to fi ght colonial domination in the New World are
much more in step with our own day than his own.
See also: Atlantic Slave Trade; Encomienda; HispaniolaCheryl FuryBibliography
Castro, Daniel. Another Face of Empire: Bartolomé de Las Casas,
Indigenous Rights, and Ecclesiastical Imperialism. Durham,
NC: Duke University Press, 2007.
Friede, Juan, and Benjamin Keen, eds. Bartolomé de Las Casas in
History: Toward an Understanding of the Man and His Work.
DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 1971.
Wagner, Henry Raup, and Helen Rand Parish. Th e Life and Writ-
ings of Bartolomé de Las Casas. Albuquerque: University of
New Mexico Press, 1967.the Historia de las Indias. Th e Historia was a catalogue of
aboriginal suff ering but it is also a morality tale. Las Casas
predicted that God would not suff er the subjugation and
cruel treatment of the aboriginal peoples and would ul-
timately bring down His judgment upon the European
conquerors.
During the 1530s, Las Casas continued revising his
manuscripts as well as writing letters to Spain railing against
the encomienda system in the Spanish colonies. He wrote
De único vocationis modo (1537), in which he articulated
why peaceful evangelization of non-Europeans would yield
the best spiritual results. Las Casas’s arguments were bol-
stered by the Bulla Sublimis Deus, in which the pope pro-
claimed the Indians’ equality, rationality, and the necessity
of their receiving Christian instruction.
Las Casas’s advocacy of the Indians and condemna-
tion of colonial exploitation won both important allies and
enemies. He hoped his eff orts had reached fruition when
Charles passed the Leyes Nuevas. Th ese “new laws” placed
restrictions on the encomienda system and named Las
Casas bishop of Chiapas in Guatemala to oversee their im-
plementation (1544). Las Casas went so far as to deny abso-
lution to those who used the encomienda system to oppress
the Indians. Th is brought about a fi restorm of opposition
and he left for Spain in 1547.
Las Casas carried on his fi ght in the Old World. He
used his infl uence at court and on the Council of the Indies
as a platform for advocating the protection and education
of aboriginals. Th is brought him into direct confl ict with
Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda, who argued that the Indians were
childlike and needed to be under Spanish subjugation for
their own welfare. Th e learned Sepúlveda based his argu-
ments on Aristotelian principles and proved himself a
match for Las Casas. Sepúlveda also had the added weight
of defending a well-established system of aboriginal ser-
vitude that was extremely popular and profi table for New
World colonists. Th eir debate (1550–1551) has attracted
much contemporary and subsequent attention. Las Casas is
generally regarded as the victor.
Las Casas carried on his mission until his death in
1566, acting as an advisor to the King and the Council of
the Indies as well as producing more written works focus-
ing on oppression in the New World. Th ough Las Casas was
among the fi rst to suggest the importation of African slaves,
he would later regret this aft er witnessing their harsh and
brutal treatment.
Bartolomé de Las Casas, a 16 th-century Spanish historian and
Dominican priest, worked diligently to highlight the plight of
the Taino and other indigenous peoples living in the Caribbean.
(Library of Congress)