A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies
by Bartolomé de Las Casas, Nigel Griffin (Editor, Translator), Anthony Pagden (Introduction by), Bartolomé de Las Casas
ISBN-10: 0140445625
ISBN-13: 9780140445626
$15.00
Book Specs
Binding
UK-B Format Paperback
Publisher
Penguin Classics
Published on
Nov 3, 1992
Edition
1st Edition
Dimensions
7.79x5.12x0.47 Inches
Weight
0.33 Pounds
About the Book
Bartolome 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.