Bloody, cruel, and unfair is how Bartolome de las Casas considered what he called the “Black Legend.” This famous “Black Legend” is known to be the way that the conquerors, all from Europe and mostly from Spain, treated the Indians that were already in America. Let me tell you why it is called this way. It is black because of the blood spilled, the sadness and depression, the evil and cruelty, among other things. The Indians were not black as people think they were. They had dark skin but do not let us confuse that with the black of depression. And off course, it is a legend.
It happened and the only things we do about this is tell it generation through generation. This is why it is called Black Legend. Now let me tell you a little bit about the author of the book to understand better the story. Bartolome de las Casas, the first priest in America, was a born in Seville, Spain. Regardless that he was a Spanish person, he was against the way his people treated the Indians. This was because he was a priest.
He was a man of God and new what was right and what was wrong. He supported the Indians and not the Spanish… they even called him traitor. In this book, Bartolome gives some examples of the principle causes of the demise of the Amerindians.
He mentions that the Spanish first got to the island of Hispaniola. As soon as they got there, the Spaniards took away the men’s children and wives so that they could serve them. They also took their food and forced them to do everything that they wanted. They made them their slaves and still did not take care of them. This is one of the reasons they began to disappear faster. They treated them bad and forced them to work for them but they did not keep them well feed by not giving them a humans being’s basic necessities like water and food.
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The Spanish even took away their food which they had earned. Another cause for the demise of the Indians was that some of them did not let the conquerors do whatever they pleased to so they began killing everyone that was not in their favor. They had small battles and confrontations throughout the conquest but every single one of them was won by the Spanish due to the fact that they were more prepared than the Indians. The Spanish had fire arms, powder, they even took their horses with them.
The Indians only depended on bow and arrows and some other tools that they had invented. The Spanish people also brought diseases to the Indian’s land and these not having cure for those diseases or the accessibility of the medicines like the Spanish did. It was a big massacre, as Bartolome calls it in his book. More than 20 million people were killed and others died on shipwrecks, according to Bartolome. Spanish also died but for every one of these that died, probably one hundred Indians did also. Imagine that you were in your house living a nice, peaceful life with a wife and your children.
Suddenly one hundred people come to your house and decide to stay there, use your food, your tv, your radio, your computer, and still make you work so that you can keep on feeding them. They take away your wife and your children. , they are also treated as slaves and whenever they feel like it they use your wife for their sexual needs. You are not superman. You cannot do anything about it. You are outnumbered, first of all, and you do not carry any arms with you like they did.
You were not prepared for this. You were living a peaceful life and all of a sudden it is gone. This is also why the Spanish got their objectives. They caught the Indians unprepared and not on guard. Maybe, just maybe, if the Indians knew that their enemy was coming, they could have done something about it. Bartolome wrote all this cruelty in his book.
He wrote facts that he saw because he witnessed everything that was going on. Even though he was Spanish, he still was a fair and honest man. Due to the fact that he was a priest and worked for God, he knew what was evil. He knew that what the people from the same land that he was from were doing was wrong.
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In my essay I compare and contrast the different ideas of de Vaca and Handsome Lake about Christianity. Both of them used Christianity in their writings as an element, however they had different viewpoints on it. De Vaca used it to treat people in a bad way like he sees them as miserable people, but Handsome Lake used it to treat people (Indians) in a better way. And I will try to prove these ...
He still protected the Indians even though he knew what this could cause. He was actually risking his life by betraying his own people. He still did care about this because he wanted to do the right thing in front of Gods eyes. Bartolome was not a propagandist but yes he was definitely an honest witness of the events that were going on at that time. Witnesses were everyone there.
Honest witness, just him because he was the only one that admitted that what they were doing was wrong so he did not join them. This is why he is honest. What Bartolome wrote in “A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies” I do not believe that it became part of the Black Legend but instead it is the legend itself. He wrote word by word and used details of what he saw.
He even convinced other Spanish people, including priests, that what they were doing was wrong. They sent letters to the king of Spain, they did all that they could so that this could stop. As I said before, Bartolome de las Casas was not a propagandist of that time or of our time. Spanish people that were against him and thought that what he was doing was right may think this but if they place themselves in the Indian’s place then they would know that Bartolome was actually a hero to them because he did have the authority to do what he did. He is an honest witness of this horrible black story. Thank God for the Indians that Friar Bartolome de las Casas helped them out with what he could.
It could have being worse and he also saved peoples life. Just by saving one person’s life is enough. He took the position he did because he was looking at experiencing what the Spanish were doing with their enemy. And as I said, Bartolome was a man of God and an honest person, this is why he did what he did and thank God he did..
