He made up his mind to give up his slaves and encomienda, and started to preach that other colonists should do the same. © 1969 Duke University Press Tears of the Indians . [77], One matter in which he invested much effort was the political situation of the Viceroyalty of Peru. His extensive writings, the most famous being A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies and Historia de Las Indias, chronicle the first decades of colonization of the West Indies. How is de Las Casas' history as a Dominican friar reflected in his analyzation of the Indians? Las Casas eventually decided that he wanted to become a priest, and his father’s new wealth allowed him to attend the best schools of the era: the University of Salamanca and the University of Valladolid. Bartolomé de Las Casas (1484 – 1566), known as the Apostle of the Indies, was a 16th century Spanish priest and writer, and the first Bishop of Chiapas, Mexico. (Latin America Otherwise. This letter, which reinvoked the old conflict over the requirements for the sacrament of baptism between the two orders, was intended to bring Las Casas in disfavour. This method was championed by prominent Franciscans such as Toribio de Benavente, known as "Motolinia", and Las Casas made many enemies among the Franciscans for arguing that conversions made without adequate understanding were invalid. With his father, he went to the Caribbean island of Hispaniola in 1502 together with Nicolás de Ovando, the new governor of the island. Dazu gehört der Widerspruch gegen die Verarbeitung Ihrer Daten durch Partner für deren berechtigte Interessen. [115] In this capacity, an ecumenical human rights institute located in San Cristóbal de las Casas, the Centro Fray Bartolomé de las Casas de Derechos Humanos, was established by Bishop Samuel Ruiz in 1989.[116][117]. SURPASSED ALL THE ANCIENT ONES IN GOOD LAWS AND CUSTOMS, CHAPTER CCLXIII. John Hecklewelder. Apologetic History of the Indies Las Casas, Sepúlveda, and Vitoria lived during the first decades of the conquest of the Americas and consolidation of the Spanish Empire. Christianity and Freedom: Historical Perspectives. Las Casas himself was granted the official title of Protector of the Indians, and given a yearly salary of one hundred pesos. [31] In this early work, Las Casas advocated importing black slaves from Africa to relieve the suffering Indians, a stance he later retracted, becoming an advocate for the Africans in the colonies as well. The rumours even included him among the dead. He went back to Hispaniola in 1508 and moved to Concepción de la Vega, in the Cibao valley, and got an encomienda (land with the indigenous people living there). They stayed in the convent founded some years earlier by Fray Domingo Betanzos and studied the K'iche' language with Bishop Francisco Marroquín, before traveling into the interior region called Tuzulutlan, "The Land of War", in 1537. John Underhill. Las Casas's group of friars established a Dominican presence in Rabinal, Sacapulas and Cobán. JSTOR is part of ITHAKA, a not-for-profit organization helping the academic community use digital technologies to preserve the scholarly record and to advance research and teaching in sustainable ways. So impressed was he by the Indian's gentle manner and simple life that he opted to go to the New World to bring Christianity to the Native Americans. It has also been noted that exaggeration of numbers was the norm in writing in 16th-century accounts, and both contemporary detractors and supporters of Las Casas were guilty of similar exaggerations. They also carried out an inquiry into the Indian question at which all the encomenderos asserted that the Indians were quite incapable of living freely without their supervision. Through the efforts of Las Casas's missionaries the so-called "Land of War" came to be called "Verapaz", "True Peace". [citation needed], The book became an important element in the creation and propagation of the so-called Black Legend – the tradition of describing the Spanish empire as exceptionally morally corrupt and violent. [16] In 1510, he was ordained a priest, the first one to be ordained in the Americas. Las Casas agreed that God had led Spain to the New World, but he saw a different reason for it: He believed it was a test. Go to Table [70], To settle the issues, a formal debate was organized, the famous Valladolid debate, which took place in 1550–51 with Sepúlveda and Las Casas each presenting their arguments in front of a council of jurists and theologians. Arriving as one of the first Spanish (and European) settlers in the Americas, Las Casas initially participated in, but eventually felt compelled to oppose, the abuses committed by colonists against the Native Americans. Las Casas appointed a vicar for his diocese and set out for Europe in December 1546, arriving in Lisbon in April 1547 and in Spain on November 1547. CHAPTER CXXVII. His brave stand against the horrors of the conquest and the colonization of the New World earned him the title “Defender of the Native Americans."