Due to Bartolome de Las Casas’s writings (even his writing to the Pope), the brutalities to the Indians were not as high of an occurrence as they were before. “Bartolomé de Las Casas, the Spanish priest, historian and advocate for Native American rights, was born in Seville. As a young man, he practiced law for a short time, but, like so many other enterprising young men of his day, he went to the New World in search of new opportunities.”1 “Those who write about Bartolomé de las Casas (1485-1566) generally fall into his admirers and his detractors, benign descriptors for the divisions that the life of the “universal protector of the Indians” usually provokes.”2 In his writing he states,
“The Indians of Hispaniola were totally deprived of heir freedom and were put in the harshest, fiercest, most horrible servitude and captivity which no one who has not seen it can understand. Even beasts enjoy more freedom when they are allowed to graze in the fields. But our Spaniards gave no such opportunity to Indians and truly considered them perpetual slaves, since the Indians had not the free will to dispose of their persons but instead were disposed of according to Spanish greed and cruelty, not as men in captivity but as beasts tied to a rope to prevent free movement. When they were allowed to go home, they often found it deserted and had no other recourse than to go out into the woods to find food and to die. When they fell ill, which was very frequently because they are a delicate people unaccustomed to such work, the Spaniards did not believe them and pitilessly called them lazy dogs and kicked and beat them; and when illness was apparent they sent them home as useless…. They would go then, falling into the first stream and dying there in desperation; others would hold on longer but very few ever made it home. I sometimes came upon dead bodies on my way, and upon others who were gasping and moaning in their death agony, repeating “Hungry, hungry.” And this was the freedom, the good treatment and the Christianity the Indians received. About eight years passed under Spanish rule and this disorder had time to grow; no one gave it a thought and the multitude of people who originally lived on the island… was consumed at such a rate that in these eight years 90 per cent had perished. From here this sweeping plague went to San Juan, Jamaica, Cuba and the continent, spreading destruction over the whole hemisphere.”
“The Indians of Hispaniola were totally deprived of heir freedom and were put in the harshest, fiercest, most horrible servitude and captivity which no one who has not seen it can understand. Even beasts enjoy more freedom when they are allowed to graze in the fields. But our Spaniards gave no such opportunity to Indians and truly considered them perpetual slaves, since the Indians had not the free will to dispose of their persons but instead were disposed of according to Spanish greed and cruelty, not as men in captivity but as beasts tied to a rope to prevent free movement. When they were allowed to go home, they often found it deserted and had no other recourse than to go out into the woods to find food and to die. When they fell ill, which was very frequently because they are a delicate people unaccustomed to such work, the Spaniards did not believe them and pitilessly called them lazy dogs and kicked and beat them; and when illness was apparent they sent them home as useless…. They would go then, falling into the first stream and dying there in desperation; others would hold on longer but very few ever made it home. I sometimes came upon dead bodies on my way, and upon others who were gasping and moaning in their death agony, repeating “Hungry, hungry.” And this was the freedom, the good treatment and the Christianity the Indians received. About eight years passed under Spanish rule and this disorder had time to grow; no one gave it a thought and the multitude of people who originally lived on the island… was consumed at such a rate that in these eight years 90 per cent had perished. From here this sweeping plague went to San Juan, Jamaica, Cuba and the continent, spreading destruction over the whole hemisphere.”
Brutalities due to the Black Legend
In 1537, Pope Paul III outlawed slavery because of how he hoped to see the Indians become devout subjects of Catholic monarchs. After this was outlawed, fifteen years later, A Very Brief Account of the Destruction of the Indies (an account of the decimation of the Indian population) was published by the Dominican priest Bartolome de Las Casas. The writings of Bartolome de Las Casas denounced Spain for causing the death of millions of innocent people and for denying Indians their freedom. In the writings he talked about the “strange cruelties” that were done by “the Christians.” These cruelties included burning men, women, and children alive and the imposition of forced labor. From the moment the Indians became subjects of Spain, Bartolome de Las Casas called for them to enjoy “all guarantees of liberty and justice”. In his writings he also stated that importing slaves from Africa would help to protect the Indians from exploitation. In 1542 the New Laws commanding that Indians no longer be enslaved were promulgated. The encomienda system (the first settlers had been granted authority over conquered Indian lands with the right to extract forced labor from the native inhabitants) was abolished from Spain in 1550. “Bartolome focused his writings on his campaign for indigenous rights. His arguments influenced the New Laws of 1542, which prohibited the enslavement of indigenous people, called for the establishment of institutional mechanisms to protect native people from labor abuses, and promised the end the encomienda system.”3 The repartimiento system (whereby residents of Indian villages remained legally free and entitled to waged but were still required to perform a fixed amount of labor each year) took its place. Now the Indians had access to land, were paid wages, and could not be bought and sold. They weren’t slaves anymore. They still worked for the Spanish though so it still allowed for many abuses by Spanish landlords and by priests who required Indians to toil on mission lands as part of the conversion process. The good thing was that the brutalities on the Indians from the Spanish improved over time. A reason for it being improved was Bartolome de La Casas’s writings that were translated almost immediately into several European languages and it contributed to the spread of the Black Legend (the image of Spain as a uniquely brutal and exploitative colonizer.4
1.“Bartolome de Las Casas” United States History. http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1120.html
2. Santa Arias, Eyda M. Merediz, eds. Approaches to Teaching the Writings of Bartolomé de las Casas. New York: Modern Language Association of America, 2008.
3. PBS. “Bartolome de Las Casas” When Worlds Collide. http://www.pbs.org/kcet/when-worlds-collide/people/bartolome-de-las-casas.html
4. Eric Foner, Give Me Liberty! An American History, (2006), (24-28).
1.“Bartolome de Las Casas” United States History. http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1120.html
2. Santa Arias, Eyda M. Merediz, eds. Approaches to Teaching the Writings of Bartolomé de las Casas. New York: Modern Language Association of America, 2008.
3. PBS. “Bartolome de Las Casas” When Worlds Collide. http://www.pbs.org/kcet/when-worlds-collide/people/bartolome-de-las-casas.html
4. Eric Foner, Give Me Liberty! An American History, (2006), (24-28).