Showing results by author "Bartolomé de las Casas" in All Categories

A Brief Account of the Destruction of the Indies is the story of the Spanish Dominican priest Bartolome de las Casas, who came to the Americas in the 16th century. Immediately he was struck by the inhumane ways in which the native peoples were treated by the European explorers and conquerors, Las Casas went on to be a leading opponent of slavery, torture, and genocide of the Native Americans by the Spanish colonists.

A Brief Account of the Destruction of the Indies is an account written in 1542 by the Spanish Dominican friar Bartolomé de las Casas (1484-1566). He chronicles the first decades of the colonization of the West Indies, exposing the atrocities committed against the indigenous people. Dedicated to Prince Philip II of Spain to alert him of these atrocities, the work reveals mass slaughter, torture and slavery, showing that the evangelizing vision of Columbus had descended into genocide.