Slaves were the primary sources of income for the Admiral. From that originated the plague of repartimiento and encomienda –– assigning and controlling Indians –– a plague which has devastated, consumed the Indians entirely. He wrote, “The Indians were to serve the Spaniards, using every man, woman, child for their maintenance and for other personal services. Las Casas also pointed out the root of the problem, he was critical of Christopher Columbus' policies that began the use of slave labor and the encomienda system in order to make the journeys to these territories profitable. He also understood the need to end the forced conversion to Christianity of the native peoples. Part of his challenge was to convince colonists, governors, and administrators of the need to treat the indigenous people with dignity. His published works include the Brief Account of the Destruction of the Indies and In Defense of the Indians. Las Casas would go on to have many highs and lows in his efforts to bring to the attention of people the injustices that were being committed. He returned to Spain where he began his work on behalf of the indigenous people. He went on to preach the sermon on August 15, 1514, where he told his audience he was giving up his encomienda. 1 This was the start of his advocacy, lobby, and preaching to bring to light the injustices of the encomienda system and for new laws that would protect the rights of the native indigenous people. To take away a neighbor's living is to murder him to deprive a laborer of his wages is to shed blood'. The text reads, ‘The bread of the needy is the life of the poor who deprives them of it is a man of blood. Yet he began to be influenced by the preaching of Dominican friars who pointed out the unethical gains made by forced slavery.įinally, when reading the text of Sirach 34:21–22, 25-26 for a sermon he was going to preach on Pentecost Sunday, he experienced a conversion. He was also an ordained priest, and continued celebrating mass. The governor of Hispaniola gave Bartolomé an encomienda, a royal colonial right to forced labor from the Indigenous inhabitants. This was a gradual conversion that did not happen overnight. Bartolomé would become an eyewitness to atrocities and injustices committed against the indigenous people and would become an outspoken advocate for indigenous rights. It was in the so called ‘new world’ that his life would forever change. He eventually departed for the Santo Domingo with his father looking forward to a life of adventure and fortune. He also witnessed the return of Christopher Columbus in April 1493 parading through the streets of Seville with great pageantry accompanied by native Tainos. His father and two uncles accompanied Christopher Columbus on his second voyage in 1493. He was an eye witness to a turning point in history. A similar choice faced Bartolomé de las Casas, a young landowner living in the ‘new world’, born in the fifteenth century in Spain. When we see injustices in society, we are faced with a choice.
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