Bartolomé de las Casas

Bartolomé de las Casas was born in Seville in 1484. He sailed to Hispaniola in 1502 and, like other settlers, received an encomienda, a grant of native people forced to work for him. As a priest he served as chaplain in the conquest of Cuba and witnessed massacres. In 1514, while preparing a sermon, he read in the book of Sirach that an offering taken from the poor is like killing a son before his father's eyes. He gave up his Indians and began preaching against the encomienda system. For fifty years he argued before kings and councils that the native peoples were free human beings. He became a Dominican in 1523, helped win the New Laws of 1542 and served as bishop of Chiapas. In 1550–1551 at Valladolid he debated the scholar Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda, who held that the Indians were natural slaves. Early in his career he suggested bringing African slaves to spare the Indians; he later repented of this and condemned African slavery as equally unjust. He died in Madrid on 18 July 1566.

Faith: Spanish settler in the Indies who became a priest and later Bishop of Chiapas. Source: Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)

See also: Francisco de Vitoria · Teresa of Ávila