Bartolomé de las Casas

File:BartolomedeLasCasas.jpg
Bartolomé de las Casas
This article is about a Spanish priest in the 16th century. For more uses on Las Casas, see Las Casas (disambiguation).

Bartolomé de las Casas, O.P. (August 24, 1474 – July 17, 1566), was a 16th century Spanish Dominican priest, and the first resident Bishop of Chiapas. As a settler in the New World he witnessed, and was driven to oppose, the torture and genocide of the Native Americans by the Spanish colonists.

Contents

Biography

Bartolome was born in Seville in 1474.1 With his father, he emigrated to the Caribbean island of Hispaniola in 1502 on the expedition of Nicolás de Ovando, during which he witnessed the extermination of the Taínos.citation needed He became a priest eight years later, and served as a missionary to the Arawak (Taino) of Cuba in 1512. There, he received a merced de tierra (royal land lease) close to Jagua, today Cienfuegos, which he exploitedcitation needed. Starting in 1514citation needed, however, he became an adamant opponent of Spanish colonialism, claiming that it was against the will of the lord. His ideas were not widely accepted because the Pope condoned the actions of the conquistadores. His 1520-21 attempt to create a more equitable colonial society in Venezuela was sabotaged by his colonial neighbors. He joined the Dominican Order in 1522. He died in Madrid in 1566.

Legacy and commemoration

Las Casas began what became known as the "Black Legend", which created stereotypical images of the Spaniards as rapacious colonists and Indians as innocents.2 Some scholars now believe that, among the various contributing factors, epidemic disease was the overwhelming cause of the population decline of the Native Americans because of their lack of immunity to new diseases brought from Europe.3 However, slavery, serfdom and warfare still inflicted casualties on the genocidal level.

He is commemorated as a missionary in the Calendar of Saints of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America on July 17. In 2000, the Roman Catholic Church began the process to beatify him. His work is a particular inspiration behind the work of the Las Casas Institute at Blackfriars Hall, Oxford.4

David Walker was fiercely critical of Las Casas, calling him a "wretch...stimulated by sordid avarice only", for favouring the importation of black slaves to the Americas.5 Las Casas later bitterly regretted and opposed his previous support for introducing African slaves in the American colonies after witnessing the maltreatment of black slaves by the colonists.

Works

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Parish, Helen Brand; Weidman, S. J., Harold E (August 1976), "The Correct Birthdate of Bartolomé de las Casas", Hispanic American Historical Review 56 (3): 385–403, http://www.jstor.org/stable/2514372 
  2. ^ Cultural Readings - Viewers and the Viewed - Black Legends
  3. ^ Stacy Goodling, "Effects of European Diseases on the Inhabitants of the New World"
  4. ^ Las Casas Institute at Blackfriars Hall website
  5. ^ Walker's Appeal p. 40

External links

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  • This page was last modified on 7 January 2009, at 00:25.

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