Bartolomé de las Casas

Spanish Dominican friar, historian, and social reformer (1474–1566)

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Lived 1484–1566, aged 82Spain

Spain WritersWriter / Author

Wikipedia
56 languages
Cross-language footprint
Era
1484–1566
Aged 82

Summary

Updated 2026-06-21

A conquistador-turned-friar who spent half a century documenting and fighting the Spanish destruction of Indigenous peoples in the Americas — his firsthand accounts of colonial atrocities became some of the most damning records of European conquest ever written.

Biography

About

Born in 1484, Bartolomé de las Casas arrived in Hispaniola as one of the first Spanish settlers and initially profited from the encomienda system that enslaved Indigenous labor. In 1515 he renounced his own laborers and began a lifelong campaign against colonial abuse, entering the Dominican Order in 1522 after a failed attempt at peaceful colonization in Venezuela. He spent decades shuttling between the Americas and the Spanish court, lobbying Charles V and writing extensive chronicles — including A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies — that catalogued the brutality of the conquist…

Voice

In their own words

Sourced, dated quotes from Bartolomé de las Casas

Bartolomé de las Casas

said1561

More than thirty other islands in the vicinity of San Juan are for the most part and for the same reason depopulated, and the land laid waste.

— History of the Indies (1561)

Bartolomé de las Casas

said1561

After the wars and the killings had ended, when usually there survived only some boys, some women, and children, these survivors were distributed among the Christians to be slaves.

— History of the Indies (1561)

Bartolomé de las Casas

said1561