The Project Gutenberg EBook of Bartholomew de Las Casas; his life,
apostolate, and writings by Francis Augustus MacNutt

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no
restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under
the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or
online at http://www.gutenberg.org/license

Title: Bartholomew de Las Casas; his life, apostolate, and writings

Author: Francis Augustus MacNutt

Release Date: November 13, 2007 [Ebook #23466]

Language: English

Character set encoding: US-ASCII

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BARTHOLOMEW DE LAS CASAS; HIS LIFE, APOSTOLATE, AND WRITINGS***

[Illustration: Fray Bartholomew de Las Casas]

Fray Bartholomew de Las Casas

From the portrair drawn and engraved by Enguidanos.

Bartholomew de Las Casas; his life, apostolate, and writings

By Francis Augustus MacNutt

Cleveland, U.S.A.
The Arthur H. Clark Company

1909

To my beloved wife, Margaret Van Cortlandt Ogden this volume is
affectionately dedicated

PREFACE

The controversies of which Bartholomew de Las Casas was, for more than
half a century, the central figure no longer move us, for slavery, as a
system, is dead and the claim of one race or of men to hold property
rights in the flesh and blood of another finds no defenders. We may study
the events of his tempestuous life with serene temper, solely for the
important light on the history of human progress.

It is sought in the present work to assign to the noblest Spaniard who
ever landed in the western world, his true place among those great spirits
who have defended and advanced the cause of just liberty, and, at the same
time, to depict the conditions under which the curse of slavery was first
introduced to North America. It in no degree lessens the glory of Las
Casas to insist upon the historical fact that he was neither the first
Spaniard to defend the liberty of the American Indians, nor was he alone
in sustaining the struggle, to which the best years of a life that all but
spanned a century were exclusively dedicated.

Born in an age of both civil and religious despotism, his voice was
incessantly raised in vindication of the inherent and inalienable right of
every human being to the enjoyment of liberty. He was preeminently a man
of action to whom nothi