Bartolom de Las Casas (1484-1566)

Part One: Defender of the Indians

Fray Bartolom de Las Casas. Public Domain Image

Bartolom de Las Casas (1484-1566) Part One:

Fray Bartolom de Las Casas was a Spanish Dominican friar who became famous (or
infamous, depending on your point of view) for his defense of the rights of the native
people of the Americas. His brave stand against the horrors of the conquest and the
colonization of the New World earned him the title Defender of the Indians.
The Las Casas Family and Columbus:
Christopher Columbus was well-known to the Las Casas family. Young Bartolom, then
about nine years old, was in Seville when Columbus returned from his first voyage in
1493 and may have met the Tano Indians that Columbus brought back with him.
Bartoloms father and uncle returned with Columbus on his second voyage. The family
became quite wealthy and the family had holdings on Hispaniola. The connection
between the two families was strong: Las Casas would eventually intercede with the
pope on the matter of securing certain rights on behalf Columbus son Diego, and
Bartolom himself edited Columbus travel journals.

Christopher Columbus

Slave Trade

Columbus Map

Spanish Spanish

Spanish Spain
Las Casas Early Life and Studies:
Bartolom decided that he wanted to become a priest, and his fathers new wealth
allowed him to send his son to the best schools at the time: The University of
Salamanca, and then later the University of Valladolid. Young Bartolom studied Canon
Law, eventually earning two degrees. He excelled in his studies, particularly Latin, and
his strong academic background would serve him well in years to come.
First Trip to the Americas:
In 1502, Bartolom finally went to see the family holdings on Hispaniola. By then, the
natives of the island had been mostly subdued and the city of Santo Domingo was being
used as a resupply point for Spanish incursions in the Caribbean. The young man
accompanied Governor Ovando on two different military missions aimed at pacifying
those natives who remained on the island. On one of these, Las Casas witnessed a
massacre of poorly-armed natives, a scene he would never forget. He traveled around
the island a great deal, and was able to see the deplorable conditions in which the
natives were kept.
Mortal Sin:
Over the next few years, Las Casas traveled to Spain and back several times, finishing
his studies and learning more about the sad situation of the natives. By 1514, he
decided that he could no longer be personally involved in the exploitation of the natives,
and renounced his family holdings on Hispaniola. He became convinced that the
enslavement and slaughter of the native population was not only a crime, but it was also
mortal sin, as defined by the church. It was this iron-clad conviction than made him such
a staunch advocate for fair treatment of the natives in the years to come.
First Experiments:
Las Casas convinced Spanish authorities to allow him to try and save the few remaining
Caribbean natives by taking them out of slavery and placing them in free towns, but the
death of King Ferdinand in 1516 and the resulting chaos over his successor caused
these reforms to be delayed. Las Casas also asked for and received a section of the
Venezuelan mainland for an experiment: he believed that he could pacify the natives
with religion, not weapons. Unfortunately, the region that was selected had been heavily

raided by slavers, and the natives hostility to the Europeans was too intense to
overcome.
The Verapaz Experiment:
In 1537, Las Casas wanted to try again to show that natives could be controlled
peacefully and that violence and conquest were unnecessary. He was able to convince
the crown to let him send missionaries to a region in north-central Guatemala where the
natives had proved particularly fierce. His experiment worked, and the natives were
brought under Spanish control peacefully. The experiment was called Verapaz, or true
peace, and the region still bears the name. Unfortunately, once the region was brought
under control, greedy colonists took the lands and enslaved the natives, undoing almost
all of Las Casas work.
Las Casas' Later Years:
See Fray Bartolom de Las Casas (1484-1566) Part Two: Las Casas' Later Years, the
second part of this article.
Analysis:
Las Casas early years are marked by his struggle to come to terms with the horrors he
has seen and his understanding of how God could allow His creatures to suffer so.
Many of his contemporaries believed that God had delivered the New World to Spain as
a reward of sorts, to encourage the Spanish to continue to wage war upon heresy and
idolatry as defined by the Catholic Church. Las Casas agreed that God had led Spain to
the New World, but he saw a different reason: it was a test. God was testing the loyal
Catholic nation of Spain to see if it could be just and merciful, and in Las Casas opinion,
it was failing Gods test miserably.
It is well-known that Las Casas fought tooth and nail for justice and freedom for the New
World natives, but it is this aspect of Las Casass beliefs that is frequently overlooked.
His love for his countrymen was no less than his love for the Indians: just as he wanted
to see the latter live in freedom in this life, he wanted the former to go to heaven in the
next. When he freed the natives working on the Las Casas family holdings in Hispaniola,
he did it as much for the sake of his soul and those of his family members as he did for
the natives themselves.
In the later part of his life, Las Casas would translate this conviction into action. He
became a prolific writer, traveled frequently between the New World and Spain, and

made allies and enemies in all corners of the Spanish Empire. For the second part of
this article, which deals with Las Casas later life, click here.