![]() These New Laws ended Indian slavery, and thus liberated thousands of indigenous Americans. Las Casas was officially appointed as a bishop and “Protector of the Indians.” Today, he is considered one of the first advocates for universal human rights. became recruiter of black troops for the Union army, as did Josephine St. When his writings were finally translated and spread around Europe, there was public outrage that pressured the Spanish monarchy to issue “New Laws” in 1542. The Indians, Las Casas says, have no religion, at least no temples. While others argued that Indians were less than human, and therefore it was justified to enslave them, Las Casas argued that Indians were fully human, created in the image of God, and should not be enslaved. De Las Casas documented specific events where the Spaniards wronged the natives but makes it clear that there were far more incidents than the ones he reports. He called himself Casaus during his youth, and changed the name to Casas later on. Bartolome de Las Casas was a Christian Priest that accompanied the Spaniards on their conquest of the Indies, and is a witness to the crimes and massacres committed against the natives. His family was from France and settled at Seville. He went on to leave his encomienda, join a monastery, and become the first priest ordained in the New World.īartolome’ de Las Casas spent the next 60 years of his life in and out of monasteries, reading, writing, praying, and fighting for the rights of native Americans. Casas (originally CASAUS), BARTOLOME DE LAS, b. Las Casas was deeply moved by Montesino’s preaching and gave his life to Jesus Christ. I am a voice crying in the wilderness … the voice of Christ in the desert of this island … You are all in mortal sin … on account of the cruelty and tyranny with which you use these innocent people. Are these not men? Have they not rational souls? Must not you love them as you love yourselves?” He participated in slave raids and military expeditions against indigenous populations throughout the West Indies. However, in 1511, Las Casas’ life changed when he heard a sermon by a Dominican friar named Antonio de Montesino: In the early 16 th century, Bartolome’ de Las Casas left Spain for Hispaniola, where he became a manager of an encomienda. He was the first to push for the Indians to receive rights. He describes his accounts of how the Spaniards treated the Indians even with a high chance of repercussions to himself. Spanish landowners wielded heavy-handed power, which they abused for many years. Bartolome’ de las Casas was a priest maintainer of records for Christopher Columbus. Despite Isabella’s orders not to enslave or otherwise mistreat the indigenous peoples (and that they receive a fair wage), the ecomienda system quickly deteriorated into slave-like serfdom. These estates were called encomiendas, where natives were encouraged to live and work. In 1503, about a decade after Christopher Columbus landed in Hispaniola, Queen Isabella issued a decree that granted certain Spanish benefactors an estate of land in the New World. Bartolom de Las Casas, a Spanish Dominican priest, wrote directly to the King of Spain hoping for n ew laws to prevent the brutal exploitation of Native.
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