Las Casas, Bartolomé de:

$20,000 · Offered by William Reese Company · No longer available

AQUI SE CONTIENE UNA DISPUTA O CONTROVERSIA; ENTRE EL OBISPO DÕ FRAY BARTHOLOME DE LAS CASAS...Y EL DOCTOR GINES DE SEPULVEDA. From the collection of R. David Parsons. The first edition of Las Casas' fifth tract, advocating for the rights of indigenous Americans in the Spanish colonies. This tract presents his side of the famous Valladolid debates, held in 1550 and 1551, which were sponsored by the crown to determine whether or not the violent conquest of America's native population was justified.Las Casas first arrived in Cuba in 1502, spending most of the ensuing years in the Caribbean and Mexico before his return to Spain in 1547. An early critic of Spanish colonial policy, he nonetheless rose to be Bishop of Chiapas. He was an eyewitness to the appalling destruction of the Native American population at the hands of the Spanish, and dedicated his life to ending the encomienda system (which enslaved indigenous Americans to their conquerors) and its concomitant abuses. His work was impactful, and in large part thanks to his influence King Charles V assembled a junta to look into the mistreatment of Native Americans by the Spanish colonizers in 1550. Part of this inquiry included an official debate, held in Valladolid between Las Casas and Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda. Sepúlveda argued that the "barbaric" cultural practices of the natives, such as cannibalism and human sacrifice, justified war and militant conversion. Las Casas, who had experienced firsthand the destruction of the

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