The northeastern coast of South America ( Venezuela) was selected, and Las Casas was sent there in 1519 with ample means for the experiment. Yet the Crown, always anxious to assist the Indians, and most favorably impressed by the philanthropic endeavors of Las Casas, was willing and eager that he should make a trial. This measure could not replace the many aborigines who had already perished, and it gave but little relief to the remnant. He suggested and, with characteristic vehemence, insisted that the natives should be placed under the control of the Church, and separated from contact with any portion of the laity. Fears were entertained that it would ruin the colonies. The rapid disappearance of the Indians in the Antilles caused much concern in Spain. As an ecclesiastic he could penetrate nearly everywhere, and express himself as he liked. In becoming a priest Las Casas gained two important points: almost complete freedom of speech and material independence. #Bartalome de las cases recruiter of the black masses full#He received, in the first years of his activity, full support from the clergy in America, and still more in Spain, where Cardinal Cisneros was counted among his most unfailing supporters. Las Casas saw all this, and sought to prevent it by every means at his disposal. Hence the aborigines s were overworked, and in many cases harshly treated, while epidemics were imported from the Old World, and a rapid decrease of the indigenous population set in. #Bartalome de las cases recruiter of the black masses manual#Nor could they comprehend how the Indian was physically unfit for manual labor, owing to the lack of training. This the Spaniards did not know and, as Europeans, could not understand. With them the women, not the men, formed the laboring class. Hence it was that the Indians were pressed into service but those of the Antilles were not fitted for labor. The earliest Spanish colonists in America were not the choicest examples of their race, neither were they numerous enough to improve the country and its resources as fast as they wished. The condition of the Indians, especially those of the Greater Antilles, was not a satisfactory one. Both Ovando and his successor, Velasquez, relied, in more ways than one, on the advice of Las Casas, who did not, however, remain much longer a layman, for in 1510 we find him a secular priest. He possessed the confidence of the Spanish Governors of the Antilles after the departure of Columbus, and the first of these, Ovando, took him to the Island of Hispanola in 1502. Bartolome studied law at Salamanca, took his degree of Licentiate, and enjoyed a fair reputation as a lawyer. He called himself Casaus during his youth, and changed the name to Casas later on.įrancisco Casaus, or Casas, the father of Bartolome, had accompanied Columbus on his second voyage and brought back an Indian boy whom he left to his son as a servant. His family was from France and settled at Seville. Casas (originally CASAUS), BARTOLOME DE LAS, b.
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