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Free men in the natural order
- A controversial theologian, Dominican friar and Bishop of Chiapas Bartolomé de las Casas, argued that the Native Americans were free men in the natural order despite their practice of human sacrifices and other such customs, deserving the same consideration as the colonizers.
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Citing the Bible and canon law, Las Casas responded, "All the World is Human!" He contradicted Sepulveda’s assertions that the Indians were barbarous, that they committed crimes against natural law, that they oppressed and killed innocent people, and that wars should be waged against infidels.
- Early Life
- Influence on Colonial Policy
- Fuelling The Black Legend
- Other Works
- The Great Experiment
Bartolomé de Las Casas was born in Seville, Spain, on 11 November 1484. He was educated at the cathedral academy of his native city and then sought fortune and adventure by sailing to the New World in 1502, where he settled on Hispaniola (today's Dominican Republic and Haiti). He then moved on and participated in the conquest of Cuba in 1511. What ...
As noted, modern historians now regard some of Las Casas' descriptions of violence and sadism as being somewhat exaggerated, but the Brief Recital achieved its aim and brought to wider attention just what was going on in the New World. This was significant since the Spanish authorities had given themselves two objectives in forging a new empire: ex...
Another group intensely interested in Las Casas' reports were the enemies of Spain. Powers like England and France leapt upon the chance to bash the Spanish monarchy as a rapacious and brutal institution which presided over an even more blood-thirsty and intolerant people only out to murder and pillage in their colonies. The Protestant English, in ...
Las Casas continued to write treatises calling for more humane treatment of indigenous peoples. His The Only Method of Attracting Men to the True Faith, written in 1530, promoted the idea that the best way forward for everyone was to treat local peoples not with force and brutality but with patience, persuasion, and affection. His essential beliefs...
Las Casas' writings were not at all typical, but, with a position on the royal council, he was influential enough to persuade the Crown to apply his theories to actual colonies, first on Hispaniola, where a community of indigenous peoples at Cumaná was left to govern itself under the peaceful guidance of missionaries. This first experiment was not ...
- Mark Cartwright
A controversial theologian, Dominican friar and Bishop of Chiapas Bartolomé de las Casas, argued that the Native Americans were free men in the natural order despite their practice of human sacrifices and other such customs, deserving the same consideration as the colonizers.
[1] Background. Bartolomé de las Casas explains in the prologue that his fifty years of experience in Spanish colonies in the Indies granted him both moral legitimacy and accountability for writing this account. [4] .
In 1550, he participated in the Valladolid debate, in which Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda argued that the Indians were less than human, and required Spanish masters to become civilized. Las Casas maintained that they were fully human, and that forcefully subjugating them was unjustifiable.
He argued for the equal humanity and natural rights of the Native Americans. Las Casas worked for the conversion of Native Americans to Christianity and for their better treatment. Pope Paul III agreed and issued an edict in 1537 banning the enslavement of Native Americans.
Juan Ginés de Sepûlveda, argued that the natives were homunculi, or sub human creatures, Las Casas proposed that they were in fact members of the human race, or linaje humano, as he put it. Las Casas' position was part of the Spanish empire's concern — in contrast to the Portuguese, French and British
