Exploring the Early Americas - Interpreting the Conquest (section: “The Fate of the Indians of the New World)
This manuscript, signed by Bartolomé de las Casas, was sent to Charles V (1500–1558), Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain, for presentation to the Council of the Indies as they debated the fate of the Indians of the New World. In it, Las Casas makes this plea, “In order that the Indians may be preserved in life and liberty there are no other means save that Your Majesty should incorporate them in your royal crown as your vassals, which they are, terminating all the encomiendas which are made in all the Indies, and giving neither one nor any Indian to [a] Spaniard.” www.loc.gov/exhibits/exploring-the-early-americas/interpreting-the-conquest.html |
Bartolomé de Las Casas debates the subjugation of the Indians, 1550
This tract, a summary of a debate concerning the subjugation of Indians, contains the arguments of Bartolomé de Las Casas, the Bishop of Chiapas, Mexico, and Juan Gines Sepulveda, an influential Spanish philosopher, concerning the treatment of American Indians in the New World.
ap.gilderlehrman.org/resource/bartolom%C3%83%C2%A9-de-las-casas-debates-subjugation-indians-1550
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Letter from King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella to the governor of Hispaniola (Haiti/Dominican Republic) in 1503 explaining the Encomienda system + Selection from a Brief account of the destruction of the indies
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An excerpt from Juan Sepulveda’s 1547 tract, The Second Democrates
Annotation: In 1550, a momentous debate over the status of the New World Indians took place at the Spanish court in Valladolid, between Juan Gines Sepulveda, the official historian of the Spanish Crown, and Bartolomé de las Casas, a Dominican priest. At issue was whether the Indians possessed a soul. Although no final verdict was rendered in the debate, the Spanish court seemed to side with las Casas by demanding that the Indians be treated more humanely. Nevertheless, abuses persisted. Three years earlier, Sepúlveda defended the Spanish Conquest by condemning the Indians as savages who should serve the Spanish Conquistadors as slaves. An excerpt from his 1547 tract, The Second Democrates, follows.
www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/active_learning/explorations/spain/spain_sepulveda.cfm
Annotation: In 1550, a momentous debate over the status of the New World Indians took place at the Spanish court in Valladolid, between Juan Gines Sepulveda, the official historian of the Spanish Crown, and Bartolomé de las Casas, a Dominican priest. At issue was whether the Indians possessed a soul. Although no final verdict was rendered in the debate, the Spanish court seemed to side with las Casas by demanding that the Indians be treated more humanely. Nevertheless, abuses persisted. Three years earlier, Sepúlveda defended the Spanish Conquest by condemning the Indians as savages who should serve the Spanish Conquistadors as slaves. An excerpt from his 1547 tract, The Second Democrates, follows.
www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/active_learning/explorations/spain/spain_sepulveda.cfm
Las Casas argues for Indian rights (Manuscript Letter, ca. 1528)
Dominican Priest Bartolomé de Las Casas was a passionate champion of the rights of the indigenous people of the Americas. Las Casas sailed from Spain to Santo Domingo in 1502. There, he was given a royal land grant including labor of the Indian inhabitants as a reward for his participation in various expeditions. Horrified by the Conquistadors' treatment of the Indians, he returned to Spain in 1510 to take holy orders, determined to devote his life to mission work in the Americas. In 1544 Las Casas was named Bishop of Chiapas, Mexico, where he worked to alleviate the burdens of colonialism on the Indians. -from the Library of Congress www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtID=8&psid=3969&filepath=http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/primarysources_upload/images/Bartolom%C3%A9_de_Las_Casas_(1474-1566)_to_Holy_Roman_Emperor_Charles_V_(1500-1558)_LG.jpg |
Lessons
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Spanish treatment of Native Americans in the Encomienda system
(This study belongs in a unit on Spanish colonization and governance of Latin America in the 1500s) |