How Did Bartolome De Las Casas
Defender of the Indians
Bartolome de las Casas came to the Indies for the same reason as all the other conquistadors: money, fame, and gold. It is what he did and who he chose to become after the arrival that made him different from the others. He went through a great transformation and devoted his life fighting for equality of the natives. For this reason, I do not agree with the idea that Bartolome de las Casas was just as negative of an impact on the Natives’ lives as the worst conquistadors.
When Las Casas first came to the Indies, he owned a plantation of his own with many American and African slaves. He is also believed to have partaken in some of the first massacres of the Natives by the Spaniards. Slowly, Las Casas began humanizing the underdogs more and more. Something clicked within him that showed him that these were people just like him that were being mistreated and murdered. It began with him freeing his Native American slaves, and eventually slaves all together. He gave up all of his land and devoted his …show more content…
After his transformation, he did nothing but help the Americans, as well as the oppressed in general. Claiming that he was nothing but a negative influence of the Natives and comparing him to the most rapacious of conquistadors would be ignorant and simply false.
Though he may have traveled on the same ship, ate beside, socialized with, and had the same greedy goal as the most inhuman and evil conquistadors, he opened his eyes and recognized the Americans as people, while some of his fellow Spaniards saw them as nothing more than livestock. He risked being labelled as a tyrant to help the people that he believed needed it. For these reasons, Bartolome de las Casas was called, “Defender of the Indians,” and should be recognized in history as a monumental positive influence on the Native Americans’
Bartolome de las Casas came to the Indies for the same reason as all the other conquistadors: money, fame, and gold. It is what he did and who he chose to become after the arrival that made him different from the others. He went through a great transformation and devoted his life fighting for equality of the natives. For this reason, I do not agree with the idea that Bartolome de las Casas was just as negative of an impact on the Natives’ lives as the worst conquistadors.
When Las Casas first came to the Indies, he owned a plantation of his own with many American and African slaves. He is also believed to have partaken in some of the first massacres of the Natives by the Spaniards. Slowly, Las Casas began humanizing the underdogs more and more. Something clicked within him that showed him that these were people just like him that were being mistreated and murdered. It began with him freeing his Native American slaves, and eventually slaves all together. He gave up all of his land and devoted his …show more content…
After his transformation, he did nothing but help the Americans, as well as the oppressed in general. Claiming that he was nothing but a negative influence of the Natives and comparing him to the most rapacious of conquistadors would be ignorant and simply false.
Though he may have traveled on the same ship, ate beside, socialized with, and had the same greedy goal as the most inhuman and evil conquistadors, he opened his eyes and recognized the Americans as people, while some of his fellow Spaniards saw them as nothing more than livestock. He risked being labelled as a tyrant to help the people that he believed needed it. For these reasons, Bartolome de las Casas was called, “Defender of the Indians,” and should be recognized in history as a monumental positive influence on the Native Americans’