Bartolome De Las Casas Essay

658 Words2 Pages

Essay on Bartolome de Las Casas When the Iindies were first discovered in the year one thousand four hundred and ninety two Spain took a great deal of interest towards it. When the Sspaniards first settled on the land there were native people known as “indians” that lived on the surrounding islands. The Sspaniards watched the indians and what they were like. The spaniards used the indians as slaves or slaughtered them like cattle. The author quotes that “these people are the most guileless, the most devoid of wickedness and duplicity, the most obedient and faithful to their native masters and to the Spanish Christians whom they serve”(De Las Casas). Brief Account of the Devastation of the Indies was written by Bartolome De Las Casas he was a Dominican Friar from a middle-class spanish family. He emigrated with his family to the new world and soon had a change of heart towards the indians and became the first advocate against spanish abuse towards the natives. He wrote this …show more content…

As if those Christians who were as a rule foolish and cruel and greedy and vicious could be caretakers of souls!”(De Las Casas). When the author talks about this event uses his experiences to portray what was going on to these natives. This quote shows a bit of information on how preposterous this idea was to him and the fact that he was almost ashamed of his own peoples action towards these natives that had done nothing to aggravate or harm them. “Then they behaved with such temerity and shamelessness that the most powerful ruler of the islands had to see his own wife raped by a Christian officer”(De las Casas). This quote really hits it home to what he thinks about his people the christian spaniards and how unspeakable he thinks there actions are. In this sentence he uses the word “shameless”. In this context he is saying that the christian spaniards should be ashamed of their

More about Bartolome De Las Casas Essay

Open Document