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APUSH Key Concept 1.2 – de las Casas versus Sepulavada

As part of your summer summer assignment, compare and contrast the views of Bartolomé de las Casas and Juan Ginés de
Sepúlveda regarding the treatment of Native Americans by the Spanish in the New World.

Bartolomé de las Casas, Brief Account of the Destruction of the Indies, 1542
Dominican priest Bartolomé de las They are by nature the most humble, patient, and peaceable, holding no grudges,
Casas (1484-1 566), one of the first free from embroilments, neither excitable nor quarrelsome. . . . They are also poor
settlers in New Spain, protested the people, for they not only possess little but have no desire to possess worldly
treatment of Indians by the Spanish in goods. For this reason they are not arrogant, embittered, or greedy. . . . They are
this address to Prince Philip, the future very clean in their persons, with alert, intelligent minds, docile and open to
king of Spain. In this passage, Las Casas doctrine, very apt to receive our holy Catholic faith, to be endowed with virtuous
advocates for the rights of native customs, and to behave in a godly fashion. And once they begin to hear the tidings
peoples and rejects the encomienda of the Faith, they are so insistent on knowing more and on taking the sacraments
system. of the Church and on observing the divine cult that, truly, the missionaries who are
here need to be endowed by God with great patience in order to cope with such
eagerness. . . . Yet into this sheepfold, into this land of meek outcasts there came
some Spaniards who immediately behaved like ravening wild beasts, wolves,
tigers, or lions that had been starved for many days. . . .
Identify: A historian’s summary can
provide a short but accurate account of Las Casas describes the innocent, friendly, peaceful ways of the
the original text. Summaries include key Indians. He tells about how they are the most innocent people who
details and feature general statements no nothing of negative human emotions. Then he turns to the
of fact, attitude, or purpose.
Summarize Las Casas presentation of
Spaniards and describes them as terrible people who took advantage
native peoples and the actions of the of these kind people and were very unnecessarily cruel to them.
Spaniards.

Analyze: What portrayals of native

peoples here might make a historian The description of the natives is entirely positive, they describe
skeptical of their accuracy? absolutely no negative qualities even though there surely are some
as all humans have negative qualities. This might make a historian
skeptical because the source seems biased towards the natives,
making them an unreliable source.

Evaluate: What European beliefs and

values might have led Las Casas to Las Casas is a priest, so his values are most likely to treat people
portray native people in this way? kindly and fairly if they deserve it. Being one of the first settlers in
New Spain, he must have seen the kindness of the natives and
though that they deserved better than the Spaniards were giving
them. He might also believe that the Indians are good people and
doing this to them would upset the higher power, so he is urging his
fellow Christians to do better.
Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda, Concerning the Just Causes of the War against the Indians, 1547
Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda (1489-1573), a . . . [T]he Spanish have a perfect right to rule these barbarians of the New World
Spanish theologian and philosopher, and the adjacent islands, who in prudence, skill, virtues, and humanity are as
was tasked by Charles V, grandson of inferior to the Spanish as children to adults, or women to men, for there exists
Ferdinand and lsabella, to respond to between the two as great a difference as between savage and cruel races and the
Bartolome de las Casas's assertions most merciful, between the most intemperate and the moderate and temperate
that the Spaniards were unjustly and, I might even say, between apes and men. . . . Compare, then, these gifts of
treating Native Americans. Below is an prudence, talent, magnanimity, temperance, humanity, and religion with those
excerpt from his book, Concerning the possessed by these half-men. . . , in whom you will barely find the vestiges of
Just Causes of the War against the humanity, who not only do not possess any learning at all, but are not even literate
Indians. or in possession of any monument to their history except for some obscure and
vague reminiscences of several things put down in various paintings; nor do they
have written laws, but barbarian institutions and customs. Well, then, if we are
dealing with virtue, what temperance or mercy can you expect from men who are
committed to all types of intemperance and base frivolity and eat human flesh?
And do not believe that before the arrival of the Christians they lived in that pacific
kingdom of Saturn which the poets have invented; for, on the contrary, they
waged continual and ferocious war upon one another with such fierceness that
they did not consider a victory at all worthwhile unless they sated their monstrous
hunger with the flesh of their enemies....
Identify: What elements of Native
American society and culture does Sepulveda highlights the barbarian aspects of the natives lives, such
Sepulveda highlight to support his as the flesh eating and rivalry with other tribes. He spends most of
argument? the passage describing the natives using metaphors that completely
diminish the natives reputation and image.

Analyze: Another analytical tool for

historians is comparison-looking for Las Casas and Sepulveda present entirely different sides of the
similarities or differences among natives, Las Casas focusing on the positive and Sepulveda on the
different types of evidence to gain a negative. However, despite these opposing views, both views bring in
better understanding of them. Compare
Sepulveda’s assessment of the Native
the traditions and cultural aspects of the natives. Sepulveda takes
Americans with that of Bartolome de some of the religious aspects and focuses on the less humane parts of
las Casas (Doc. 7). ln what way does the rituals while Las Casas sees the tradition and the meaning behind
Sepulveda use arguments that are the rituals. Both are focused on the same people and the same aspects
similar to those of Las Casas? of them, they are just portraying them in different ways.

Evaluate: Using your analysis of

Sepulveda’s and Las Casas’s arguments The Spaniards perceived themselves as superior and more advanced
from the Analyze question, what can than the natives. They saw the natives and their culture and
you infer abou the ways that the
traditions as barbaric and inhumane, while they saw their own
Spanish perceived themselves in
relation to the Native Americans? actions as civilized and mature. They saw the natives civilizations as
underdeveloped and uncivilized, which led them to want to civilize
the natives in their own way that they considered better.