Bartolome De Las Casas Summary

Inhuman Traffic The greed for money makes humans perform the most repugnant, inhuman actions; then again, there are others who will risk their lives to try to prevent the atrocities. The ultimate inhuman deed is snatching another human being’s freedom and dignity and pushing them into a life of forced labor without their consent, with little or no wages for the rest of their lives. I am, of course, taking about the tragedy of slavery and the booming trade in slaves that flourished in the 19th century across the Atlantic, from Africa to the Americas. Not all men of that time were criminal, and some worked tirelessly to stop the “slavers” and put an end to this evil trade and practice. Feraud was a notorious slave trader, he was the captain

In the passage: “The Devastation of the Indies 1555,” the author, Bartolome De Las Casas, a friar in Cuba, describes the atrocities committed by the Spanish against the indigenous Indian population to such an extent that the Indians realized “that these men had not come from heaven” (Riley 629). Although the Spanish used religion as the reason for their massacres and the slavers used profit as their motive, the source of the hatred and the inhuman treatment meted out was very similar. The Spanish considered the Indians savage, wild and ruthless, so the way to deal with them, they must have reasoned, was with greater savagery, which they did. The truth is the Indians were peaceful people, while the colonizers behaved like savages. The slavers, likewise, thought of the Africans as less than human and therefore deserving of the inhumanity imposed on them. Once again the captives were far more human than their captors and traders. It would be difficult to argue which of these situations is more

Owen purposefully chose the location of his settlement and new base on Fernando Po, a small island on the West coast of Africa, and near the major slave trading centers. His thinking was that this location would “spare liberated Africans a long, potentially deadly voyage to Freetown” (Blaufarb and Clarke 65). In the present time, such progressive thinking is expected from every person in any position of power, but to display such kindheartedness for the downtrodden in early nineteenth century is truly remarkable and commendable. Another person who developed a compassion for the indigenous people of West Indies was the friar Bartolome De Las Casas in the sixteenth century. For the welfare of the local people he tried to create a utopian society and “devoted his adult life to aiding the Indians in the Americas” (Riley 628). Las Casas’ account of events in West Indies should be considered credible because he himself was from Spain and should have no reason to wrongfully malign his own countrymen. Besides, he was a man of