Today’s Hispanic Heritage Month post goes back to the era of Spanish colonialism in the form of the book
A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies by Bartolome de Las Casas. Introduction by Anthony Pagden. Translated by Nigel Griffin
Here is how the book is described:
“Bartolomé de Las Casas was the first and fiercest critic of Spanish colonialism in the New World. An early traveller to the Americas who sailed on one of Columbus’s voyages, Las Casas was so horrified by the wholesale massacre he witnessed that he dedicated his life to protecting the Indian community. He wrote A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies in 1542, a shocking catalogue of mass slaughter, torture and slavery, which showed that the evangelizing vision of Columbus had descended under later conquistadors into genocide. Dedicated to Philip II to alert the Castilian Crown to these atrocities and demand that the Indians be entitled to the basic rights of humankind, this passionate work of documentary vividness outraged Europe and contributed to the idea of the Spanish ‘Black Legend’ that would last for centuries.”
The Hispanic legacy here in the “New World” was initially fraught with abuse and genocide of the Natives that the Spaniards wanted to convert by all means necessary. Bartolomé de Las Casas wrote this book as the event unfolded. Its a shame that King Phillip II and subsequent monarchs throughout Europe failed to heed the warnings in the book. But we would be foolish to not know where we came from while celebrating who we are. The past, for good or bad, should never be forgotten.
#BartolomédeLasCasas #AShortAccountoftheDestructionoftheIndies #SpanishColonialHistory #ColonialSpain #NativeAmericanHistory #CaribbeanHistory #CentralAmericanHistory #SouthAmericanHistory #Books #Libros #Livres #Bookstagram #History #Historia #Histoire #Geschichte #HistorySisco (at Barnes & Noble)
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