Bartolomé de las Casas · Politics

The Blind Spot and the Reckoning

The hardest chapter in Las Casas&rsquo;s life: his early proposal to import enslaved Africans to relieve the suffering of the Indians, his later horror at what he had done, and the recantation in his <em>History of the Indies</em> - a study in moral blindness, growth, and honesty.

What you'll be able to recall

You learned that Las Casas, early in his campaign, suggested importing enslaved Africans to relieve the Indians, that he later recognized African slavery as just as unjust as Indian slavery, condemned it in his History of the Indies , and feared he could not be excused before God. Explain what this episode reveals abo…

Leads to Montesquieu.

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