In Need of Assistance

Hello, my name is Bonnie am I am 16.  I have just written an essay for my college class, and was wondering if I could have some input on my paper.  I am also having some trouble on making a the introduction to my paper defined.  I intended to write first paragraph as the story behind Las Casas’s life, and his document “On the Inland of Hispaniola,” then the second and third paragraph was meant to contain the introduction.  Following this, was the body of the report, but it looks like I was not able to make this clear in my paper…..  Can anyone give me some suggestions how I can clarify this in my paper? 

Thank you so much for your time and input!

Bonnie

                The Inland of Hispaniola

Bartolome De Las Casas, the protector of the Native American Indians, was born in Seville on 1474.  In 1502 he traveled to American working as a conquistador under Christopher Columbus, and was granted a share of land and Indian Slaves to work it.  During the time he spent in America, Las Casas was an eyewitness to the constant, brutal Mistreatment of the Indians.  Finally, after observing the most disturbing scene concerning an Indian Chief refused to accept Christianity because he was told “White men go to heaven,” Las Casas realized just how far the Spanish had gone in turning the Indians’ hate towards them.  After retiring as a soldier because he desired to end Indian slavery and work towards ending the Indians’ persecution.  Las Casas also wrote “On the Inland of Hispaniola that revealed  the progressing cruelty of the Spanish Soldiers.  

     Ever since Christopher and his men arrived to America and contacted with the Indians, it was evident that the Spanish were far more superior to the Natives in both military strength and intelligence.  As with keeping in the belief that almost all of society had at that time, the Spanish saw that the worth of a human was based almost exclusively on the power and intellect the that individual possessed to have to control and respect.   Thus, when the Spanish soldiers saw that they could easily cheat and do whatever they wanted to do to the Indians, and even reasoned that it was in their rights to do so, for they saw that they were of a much higher class and superior to the Indians.  Thus, eventually, continuing in that belief there were able to openly justify the unspeakable cruelties and wrongs that they had done the Natives without being rebuked or feeling remorse.    

     Father Las Casas, and others like him, however did not believe that the Indians were stupid as in their lack of ability to learn, but, saw the Indians, as uneducated sheep, in need of a shepherd, or a educator to guide and protect them as America grew more and more populated with the more advanced and sophisticated Spanish colonies who were settling their land.  Although Father Las Casas had seen that the Naitives were inferior in strength and knowledge, he did not believe that they were any less human then any other human being.

     Supporting the view that the Spanish had concerning the Indians, Catholic theologian, Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda, Las Cassas’s complete opposite spoke the following in engaging Las Cassas in a debate that took place in King Jame’s court that would decided the future of Indian slavery:   

“Being slaves by nature, [the Indians], uncivilized, barbarian and inhuman, refuse to accept the rule of those civilized [the Spaniards] and with much more power than them.”

This perfect example displays the most common view that the Spanish had concerning their “rights” to dominate the Indians.  By stating that the Indians were barbarians and inhuman, and that they themselves were Civilized and had much more power then them, displays just how the Spanish came to the conclusion of how to determine one’s humanity.  Las Cassas also wrote of this view by his analogizing the Indians as “Sheep” and the Spanish as “Wolves”:

“Among these gentle sheep, gifted by their Maker with the above qualities, the Spaniards entered as soon as soon as they knew them, like wolves, tiger and lions which had been starving for many days…” 

This Analogy that Las Cassas used perfectly illustrates the relationship between the Spanish and the Indians.  Being that the Indians were both the weaker and less educated they were preyed upon by the Spanish “Wolves.”

     Many people think that the Spanish Soldiers who mistreated the Indians, were a group of  godless brutes who, going against all forms of conscience, dealt such treacheries to the Indians, that they could never justify themselves for what they had done and were thus condemned by god and the government when news of their brutality reached Spain.  This, although it is true to a certain extent, is for the most part, wrong.  It is surprising how, after a time a horrid act can be manipulated into something that becomes completely justifiable to a person.  Las Casas wrote of one such practice describing the incorporation with religion into their terrible practices:  “They made a gallows just high enough for the feet to nearly touch the ground, and by thirteens, in honour and reverence of our Redeemer and the twelve Apostles, they put wood underneath and, with fire, they burned the Indians alive.”  From this passage, it is quite clear that the Spanish considered themselves to be good Christians, and that not only did they think that what they were doing was expectable, but by incorporating religion into their massacres, they showed that they thought it was in their rights to do so. 

       Although everyone who knew that Indians existed knew that they were uncivilized and uneducated, it was also a popular belief that the Indians did not have the ability to learn, being as they were nonhuman.  Father Las Cassas, did not, however believe that that was the case.  In “On the Inland of Hispaniola,” Las Cassas wrote:

“God has created all these numberless people to be quite the simplest, without malice or duplicity, most obedient, most faithful to their natural Lords, and to the Christians, whom they serve…”

Although at first glance it appears that Father Las Cassas is writing that God has created them to be “stupid,” I do not think that this is the case, being that later on in this document, (The unabridged version) Las Casas wrote the following: 

“They are innocent and pure in mind and have a lively intelligence, all of which makes them particularly receptive to learning and understanding the truths of our Catholic faith and to being instructed in virtue; indeed, God has invested them with fewer impediments in this regard than any other people on earth.”

Thus, it would appear that Las Casas did not mean to say that they were created stupid, but were made capable of being educated, but remained uneducated.    

    Although Las Casas and Juan Ginés were quick to defend the group that they were supporting, and to point out the wrongs of the other, each side failed to recognize the weight of the injury that their own side had done.  The Indians were not really the way Las Casas had portrayed them to be in his writings, and as a result, they had damaged the Spanish a great deal more then the priest would have liked to admit.  But even though the Indians afflicted the Spanish a good amount of damage, the Spanish undoubtedly had done much greater harm to the Indians then they had received from them. 

Along with Spanish’s belief that they were far more superior then the Indians, there were many factors that contributed to why the Spanish were so cruel to the Indians.  To start with, the Indians were constantly attacking and destroying their settlements at random so it would only be natural for the Spanish to do the same to them.  To add to this, when the Spanish did wish to have a civilized peace treaty with the Indians, it was common for the tribe in which they had made an alliances with to attack them, being that each Indian had greater alliances within his family and network of other tribes.  So, for the Spanish who did not know about the Indian’s separate alliances, it must have greatly complicated things when an Indians from a tribe that they were at peace with would suddenly attack them.  This would have given the Spanish the impression that the Indians were indeed, the untrustworthy, uncivilized savages that they thought them to be.