Las Casas’s Bias

Las Casas’s Bias


Bartolome de Las Casas was a Spanish colonist beginning in 1502. At the beginning of his travels he had no problem with the treatment of the Indians; however, because of a sermon he attended a few years into his trip his views were completely changed. After this transformation he became an activist in the fight against Indian oppression. In the year 1515 he returned to Spain to tell the king of the massacre occurring in the New World. He also recorded his experiences in several documents including Destruction of the Indies in 1552. The purpose of this report was to inform the king, the people of Europe, and the future people of the world about the struggle the people of the Indies went during the Spanish colonization of the New World. This report was written a long time after the events occurred therefore makes one wonder how much of his report is accurate. This gap in time combined with Las Casas’s obvious bias leaves a lot of questions in ones mind ab...