This study will explore the vital role played by Bartolome de las Casas (1474-1566) in defending the rights of the indigenous peoples of the New World. While it is not accurate to say that he was the "savior of the Indians from Spanish cruelty," he certainly played a role in limiting that cruelty, risking much in doing so. Historical controversy continues to swirl around his life and works centuries after his death. While some critics argue that he was not the radical reformer he is pictured as being by his admirers, it is nevertheless clear that considering the harsh colonial era in which he lived, in which indigenous peoples were conventionally seen as less than human, de las Casas was indeed a brave supporter and defender of those people. One of the most compelling aspects of de las Casas's story is the learning process he himself went through as he awakened to injustice against the Indians and sought a remedy for it. He did not enter the process as a saint or savior for the Indians and certainly made a number of serious moral errors as he moved toward his final stand as spokesman for the rights and humanity of those people.
De las Casas's writings exposing the mistreatment of Indians by the Spanish played a large part in the creation of "The Black Legend," which referred to the evil activities of the Spanish. An excerpt demonstrates the power and passion of his indictment of his own country and countrymen, which he described as "Being An Historical and true Account Of the Cruel Massacres and Slaughters of above Twenty Millions of innocent People, Committed by the Spaniards" in Hispaniola, Cuba, Jamaica, Mexico, and Peru "to the total destruction of those Countries (de las Casas "Black" 1).
Clearly, there was some exaggeration, for these nations were not totally destroyed. However, the account served the purpose of making Spaniards and all Europe aware of what came to be the "Black Legend." The portrait of the innocent India...