Ben
Stewart
Professor Jentz
US
History to 1877
9/30/04
Bartolome
de Las Casas
Few
people are willing to work against the exploitation of the misunderstood when
personal gain is possible. As Spanish colonies emerged in the Caribbean,
so did an attitude involving cruelty and death, which was masked by
restrictions that made some things worse. Bartolome de las Casas was a part of
these exploitations, but as a Spanish Catholic priest, would take a stand of
his own. His relentless preaching against the wrong committed by Spanish
colonials would begin a lifetime devoted to ending a problem that he believed
was a mortal sin, and would send the exploiters to hell.
In the 15th
century, European countries enjoyed safe trade with China
and India
through the hegemony of the Mongol Empire. Upon collapse of this empire, Muslim
states blockaded passage and Europe was forced to find
new ways to Asia. After failing to do so on one
occasion, Christopher Columbus convinced the Spanish Crown that a voyage to India
was feasible given Columbus’s
projections of distance. The Spanish had correctly held the belief that given
the technology of the times a ship could not reach the Indies
without running out of supplies. The Crown’s approval of Columbus
allowed him to reach Hispaniola, which he believed was India.
The natives of these
islands welcomed Columbus and gave
him gifts. However, Columbus and Spain
were looking for treasures, not friends. Upon return to Europe,
the Pope issued a Papal Bull, which granted Columbus
the possession of any discovered lands. This Bull was granted for two reasons:
Fear of a counter-claim by Portugal,
and belief that the entire world was the property of God, which was
distributable by the Pope, who was God’s delegate on Earth. With the possession
of these islands, Columbus was to
bring natives to the Christian faith (Dickason and Clark 4). These claims were
made regardless of the attitudes of current inhabitants, but did not extend to
populations where natives were of the Christian faith. (5).
The Spanish would spread
their ideas into the New World, among which was feudalism.
As population and competition between countries in the New World
increased, so did the need for labor. The Spanish found themselves with two
choices: Enslavement of uncooperative Indians with slave raids on neighboring
islands, or the distribution of lands with Indians to provide labor for the
Spaniards (Kramer 2). Queen Isabella deemed the slaves “free,” slaves were to
be paid for their labor, and were in theory paying tribute to the crown
(Dickason and Green 5). The slaves were “free” subjects who were only to be
taken if they were rebellious against the crown or had served as slaves under
native rulers. Spanish lords were given land and natives to labor on it. In
turn, these lords promised to protect their laborers and convert them to
Christianity, as they believed the current faith involving rituals to be
barbaric. This system has the same bases as slavery, but the Crown was hostile
against the concept of slavery and placed restrictions that allowed them to
deem it as an acceptable form of labor. These restrictions included preventing
slaves from being bought, sold, or inherited, and required the taxation of the
owner. Previous forms of slavery had allowed families to gain power by treating
slaves humanely so that their children could inherit slaves, and thus give
greater power to their family. Since a lord’s laborers could no longer be
passed down, they felt obligated to get the highest amount of work out of them
before their or their laborers death.
The usage of native people
as slave began to raise moral objections, primarily by one of the first people
to reject an encomienda, Bartolome de las Casas. Bartolome’s father, Antonio, had
been on Columbus’s first voyage,
where he had accumulated wealth, which he used to send Bartolome to the University
of Salamanca. Bartolome left Spain
in 1502 and headed to Hispanola. He was on several other expeditions, including
the conquest of Cuba
in 1512. For his services as a conqueror, he was given an encomienda.
Years earlier, reports had
been sent to the Crown regarding the treatment of laborers and the appalling
conditions in which the colonies lived. In 1510, Dominican missionaries were
sent, but were too late. These Dominicans were horrified by the unflinching
wickedness that encomenderos showed their laborers. A large issue with the
treatment of people in the colonies was that he was completely ignorant of the
place that was to bring him wealth, and had trusted the reports of people
thousands of miles away, whose writing had gone unquestioned. The Dominican
missionaries protested the conditions of the Indians a great deal. Conflict
between the Dominican missionaries and the original colonists, who were of
Franciscan descent, eventually earned an audience with King Ferdinand.
Ferdinand was said to be “greatly moved” by the pleas of the Dominican
preacher, and pleaded ignorance, upon which he summoned a council of
theologians to attempt to fix the problem. This group created Burgos Law’s on December 27, 1512 (Simpson 30, 31).
These laws stated that Indians were inclined to a life of idleness and vice,
and were not required to learn Christian virtues.
Casas kept his encomienda
for two years, however, his experience with this system, and the pleas of the
Dominican missionaries lead him to believe that the role of the Spanish in America
was unjust, tyrannical, and wrong. Casas was as engaged as others were in the
usage of Indians for personal profit, but he was kind to them personally, and
provided carefully for them (Helps 19).
In 1514, he renounced his encomienda and began
preaching against the enslavement of Indians. His first target became the
Governor, who was astonished at Casas change of attitude. Casas also requested
that, if he were to ask for Indians again, even with tears of blood, that the
Governor be punished for listening to the request (Helps 23). Bartolome’s
conscious about the treatment of Indians started when he witnesses the original
handful of natives that Columbus
had captured and brought to Spain.
The natives he chose had been wearing gold, which Spain
was seeking for the purpose of wealth.
Casas continued his
preaching against the labor system, including his message in a sermon. He
publicly came forward with his thoughts on the encomienda system and claimed
that the souls of lords who kept their Indians were in danger. The congregation
was surprised to hear this being called a sin, as they thought it was like
being called a sinner for making use of beasts of the field (24).
Having instilled fear in
the Spanish colonists, Casas became determined to preach directly to the head
of authority, King Ferdinand. Casas resources were exhausted; he sold a mare,
which was worth a hundred pesos (25). Determined to go, he wrote to a friend by
the name of Renteria about the importance of going to Castille, and that unless
Renteria could return from business immediately, he would have to leave without
him. Renteria and Bartolome had a very firm friendship, and attempts were made
to allow them to meet and resolve the situation. Renteria would spend his Lent
in a Franciscan monastery. There he thought about the miseries of Indians, and
came to the thought of asking for a King’s leave to found colleges in which he
might collect young Indians. Renteria would return to Spain
to obtain a king’s sanction, where he received Casas’s letter and hurried back
to Cuba (26).
Casas would return to Spain,
as he had won an audience with the king.
Upon returning to Spain,
he learned that King Ferdinand had died, and that his successor and grandson,
Charles I, was out of the country. Casas was given the title “Protector of the
Indians” by Archbishop Francisco Jiminez de Cisneros, a new ally he had found.
Jiminez gave support for idea of removing Indians from their encomiendas and
placing them in self-sustaining villages. The supporters of this idea, which
included King Ferdinand, would soon die, leaving Charles V as the king, who was
out of the country at the time.
During this time, Casas
made an attempt to free laboring Indians that would have adverse consequences,
some of which we still feel today. As Indians died rapidly from work, a need
grew for additional laborers. Some lords promised Casas that they would free
their current slaves in return for license to keep a dozen African slaves. The
council of the Indies, under the recommendation of
Sevillian officials, allowed 4,000 Africans to be captured from the islands of Hispaniola,
San Juan, Cuba,
and Jamaica.
Casas soon repented and judged himself guilty of ignorance. Black slaves were
treated no better than their Indian predecessors, he was not sure if his good
faith would give him excuse in the eyes of God. (Casas 257).
Casas was allowed to set
up his model villages in 1520. King Charles I granted him land in Venezuela
to test his theories about the treatment of Indians. This colony would
ultimately fail, in part to previous Spanish treatment. Casas would take refuge
in a Dominican monastery, where he would join their order and become a friar. Despite
this failure, his undying devotion to helping the Indians persisted, when in
1542, the “New Laws” were created. The New Laws stated that American Indians
were not to be enslaved for any reason whatsoever, and those being held were to
be freed, when present holders died, their slaves were property of the crown. (Dickason
and Clark 212).
These laws would only
create false hope for Casas and his fellow friars. Violent revolts started and
a viceroy and bishop were killed. The situations started by these laws became
so sustained that the most controversial elements were eventually removed.
Casas lost any popularity he had became a figure that was revered by some and
despised by others.(212)
Bartolome’s final chance
at ending Indian enslavement would happen in Valladolid.
King Charles V created a moratorium in the Indies, and
informed Casas that he was to debate Juan Gines de Sepulveda, who felt that the
Indians were inferior and wanted a military conquest on them. He received four
points on which Sepulveda would argue: Indians are barbarous, Indians commit
crimes against natural law, Indians oppress and kill innocent people, and wars
may be waged against infidels in order to prepare for the preaching of faith. Casas
argued that the justification of Spanish presence in the new world came from
the 1493 Papal Bulls, written to bring Christianity to the Indians, and that
these powers were granted to the Pope, and no one else. The first American
Indians encountered had been noticeably peaceful, and became violent only after
the Europeans did, after which the reaction of the Indians was self-defense.
Casas denied that the church had authority over non-Christian living things,
and cited Zarbarella, “The power of the pope concerns the Christian people only
and not other sects, so that in no way is it his business to judge those who
are outside [the faith]” (qtd. Zarbarella 206). His arguments were not based on
just legal principles, that all mankind is one. Natural law applied to all mankind,
and under natural law, all humans have the same basic rights. Although the
theologians that were present for the debate agreed with Casas, the debate
finished with Sepulveda’s ideas being used in practice.
Casas was to retire and
become an advisor to the King and Council of the Indies.
He defended the Indians until his death at the age of 92. The publication of
his book, “A Very Brief Account of the Destruction of the Indies”
sealed the “Black Legend,” which would begin two stereotypes: Indians are peaceful
and childlike, and that the Spanish are cruel and self-centered. (Saad).
Throughout his lifetime,
the devotion of Bartolome de las Casas to both religion and the protection of
the oppressed have made him regarded as the most important person in the
defense of the Indians. He lived during a period in which savagery was allowed
against voiceless people because of ignorance and greed, but managed to give
Europe a moral conscious about what they were doing in the new world.
Works Cited
Helps,
Arthur. “The life of Las Casas, “The Apostle of the Indies” Convent
Garden, London
1890
Casas, Bartolome de las “A Very Brief Account of
the Destruction of the
Indies”.
Baltimore and London.
The Johns Hopkins
University Press, 1992.
--, Witness:
Writings of Bartolome de Las Casas Ed. George Sanderlin. Maryknoll,
NY. Orbi Books, 1992.
--, History of the Indies.
New York, New York.
Harper and Row publishers, 1971.
Dickason, Olive P., and L.
C. Green. The Law of Nations and the New
World.
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada:
University of Alberta Press, 1989.
Kramer,
“Encomienda Politics in Early Colonial Guatemala
1524-1544: Dividing the Spoils” Westview Press, 1994.
Saad. “Bartolome de Las Casas” 29 September, 2004 <http://www.loyno.edu/history/journal/Saad.html>
Simpson “The Encomienda in New
Spain: The Beginning of Spanish Mexico”
University
of California Press, 1950.
