A Brief Account of the Destruction of the Indies - Bartolomé de las Casas Audiobook

Written by Bartolomé de las Casas
Read by Jason McCoy
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 128 Kbps
Unabridged

The personal account of the Spanish Dominican Friar Bartolome de las Casas, who came to the Americas in the 16th century. Immediately struck by the inhumane treatment of the native peoples by the explorers and conquerors, Las Casas went on to be a leading opponent of slavery, torture, and genocide of the Native Americans by the Spanish colonists. From 1517 to 1540, Las Casas traveled back & forth between Spain & the Spanish colonies in Latin America numerous times, in his personal account, with chapters covering Cuba, Nicaragua, Hispaniola, Guatemala, Venezuela, Florida, and many other areas conquered by the Spaniards. De las Casas noticed that no matter where he visited, the Spanish were committing the same crimes.

During the hearings ordered by Charles V of Spain to resolve issues of forceful conversion and colonial exploitation of Indians, Las Casas presented the account before the members of the Council of the Indies as proof of atrocities committed upon Indians by colonial authorities, his efforts also influenced the papal bull ‘Sublimis Deus’ of 1537 which established the status of the Indigenous people as rational beings and the passage of the new Spanish colonial laws known as the New Laws of 1542, which abolished native slavery for the first time in European colonial history and led to the Valladolid debate in Spain.

Length: 3 hours and 12 minutes.

First published as ‘Brevísima relación de la destrucción de las Indias’ in 1552.

Comment: If you haven’t read the book or listened to the audio version, why would you post negative comments??? Well, I presume the answer to that is self-evident :(