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Bartholomew de Las Casas was born in Seville, Spain in 1474. He was a young man of wealth and social position when Columbus returned in 1492 from the New World, bringing a captive Indian as a trophy. The young de Las Casas took his law degree at the University of Salamanca, where the Dominicans were already wrestling with the problems of social injustice brought about by the conquest. In 1502 he accompanied his father to Hispaniola (now the Dominican Republic and Haiti).
A typical young Spanish grandee, with a large amount of property on the island of Hispaniola, Bartolomew was atypically kind to the Native People who were slaves on his plantation. However the thought of slavery never really bothered him. It seemed at the time an eminently sensible method of colonizing a new land, and for many years while injustice flared on all sides, he paid little attention to the social injustice of the colonial system.
In 1510, the Order of Preachers arrived in Hispaniola from Spain. From almost the beginning they began to preach against the entire system of slavery. The Spanish colonists were amazed, then angry and finally began to work at ways of having the Dominicans removed. They banned together and sent petitions to the King requesting that the friars be sent home. Bartholomew de Las Casas was one of the colonists who heard Father Anthony Montesinos preach against slavery. While at that time he was not prepared to give up his slaves, he did realize with greater clarity the injustices he and the other Spaniards were committing against the Native People. After a time of prayerful reflection he gave the responsibility of running his plantation to a friend and expressed a desire to become a priest. Consequently he was the first priest to celebrate his first Mass in Hispaniola.
Soon after his ordination he was assigned as chaplain to the army invading Cuba. Despite the promises made to him assuring a fair use of force; he witnessed a horrible massacre of the Native People. Totally disillusioned, he sailed for Spain the next year, and in 1515 he presented the case of the Native People to the Council of the Indies. For two years de Las Casas pleaded the cause of the conquered people and asked that the king stop the senseless violence. King Ferdinand, wishing to avoid the entire situation, sent de Las Casas back to Hispaniola with the title “Protector of the Indians” and with a great many laws to rectify the matter. It soon became clear to Bartholomew that laws without backing were futile words. So in less than a year, de Las Casas was sailing back to Spain to ask for support for the laws he had been given. After consulting with Charles the V, de Las Casas realized that King Ferdinand had no intention of forcing the colonialist to obey.
More disheartened, Bartholomew returned to Hispaniola and in 1522, freed his own slaves and requested entrance into the Dominican Order. He received the habit. He spent the next eight years of his life praying, reflecting and writing. Of the many works that he accomplished in his life, his writings have had the greatest impact on subsequent generations.
Since traffic in slavery was then a common practice through out the world, de Las Casas at first endorsed the importing of Africans slaves to the colonies, but quickly repented of his decision. He again confessed this mistake as a sin on his deathbed.
The intelligentsia of Europe maintained the legitimacy of the inhuman slave traffic and strove to negate the influence of de Las Casas. Undaunted by almost universal opposition, the intrepid liberator crossed the Atlantic fourteen times to persuade the Spanish Cortes to enact humanitarian laws for the peaceful civilization and conversion of the Native People. He was admired and supported in his efforts by the Emperor Charles V and by the Dominican professors at the University of Salamanca. Chiefly through his efforts the famous New Laws were enacted in 1542-43.
In 1544 de Las Casas was appointed bishop of the Mexican province of Chiapas. But he was so frustrated by the powerful landholders that he retired in Spain in 1547.
Bartholomew de Las Casas spent the remaining years of his life in retirement at the convent of Our Lady of Athocha in Madrid. Rarely speaking anymore, he spent his days writing. At the age of ninety he wrote his last defense of the Native People, explaining the rights of personal property of non-Christians. He died in 1566, not realizing his hopes of true equality and humanitarian treatment of the Native People.
A typical young Spanish grandee, with a large amount of property on the island of Hispaniola, Bartolomew was atypically kind to the Native People who were slaves on his plantation. However the thought of slavery never really bothered him. It seemed at the time an eminently sensible method of colonizing a new land, and for many years while injustice flared on all sides, he paid little attention to the social injustice of the colonial system.
In 1510, the Order of Preachers arrived in Hispaniola from Spain. From almost the beginning they began to preach against the entire system of slavery. The Spanish colonists were amazed, then angry and finally began to work at ways of having the Dominicans removed. They banned together and sent petitions to the King requesting that the friars be sent home. Bartholomew de Las Casas was one of the colonists who heard Father Anthony Montesinos preach against slavery. While at that time he was not prepared to give up his slaves, he did realize with greater clarity the injustices he and the other Spaniards were committing against the Native People. After a time of prayerful reflection he gave the responsibility of running his plantation to a friend and expressed a desire to become a priest. Consequently he was the first priest to celebrate his first Mass in Hispaniola.
Soon after his ordination he was assigned as chaplain to the army invading Cuba. Despite the promises made to him assuring a fair use of force; he witnessed a horrible massacre of the Native People. Totally disillusioned, he sailed for Spain the next year, and in 1515 he presented the case of the Native People to the Council of the Indies. For two years de Las Casas pleaded the cause of the conquered people and asked that the king stop the senseless violence. King Ferdinand, wishing to avoid the entire situation, sent de Las Casas back to Hispaniola with the title “Protector of the Indians” and with a great many laws to rectify the matter. It soon became clear to Bartholomew that laws without backing were futile words. So in less than a year, de Las Casas was sailing back to Spain to ask for support for the laws he had been given. After consulting with Charles the V, de Las Casas realized that King Ferdinand had no intention of forcing the colonialist to obey.
More disheartened, Bartholomew returned to Hispaniola and in 1522, freed his own slaves and requested entrance into the Dominican Order. He received the habit. He spent the next eight years of his life praying, reflecting and writing. Of the many works that he accomplished in his life, his writings have had the greatest impact on subsequent generations.
Since traffic in slavery was then a common practice through out the world, de Las Casas at first endorsed the importing of Africans slaves to the colonies, but quickly repented of his decision. He again confessed this mistake as a sin on his deathbed.
The intelligentsia of Europe maintained the legitimacy of the inhuman slave traffic and strove to negate the influence of de Las Casas. Undaunted by almost universal opposition, the intrepid liberator crossed the Atlantic fourteen times to persuade the Spanish Cortes to enact humanitarian laws for the peaceful civilization and conversion of the Native People. He was admired and supported in his efforts by the Emperor Charles V and by the Dominican professors at the University of Salamanca. Chiefly through his efforts the famous New Laws were enacted in 1542-43.
In 1544 de Las Casas was appointed bishop of the Mexican province of Chiapas. But he was so frustrated by the powerful landholders that he retired in Spain in 1547.
Bartholomew de Las Casas spent the remaining years of his life in retirement at the convent of Our Lady of Athocha in Madrid. Rarely speaking anymore, he spent his days writing. At the age of ninety he wrote his last defense of the Native People, explaining the rights of personal property of non-Christians. He died in 1566, not realizing his hopes of true equality and humanitarian treatment of the Native People.
