Bartolomé De Las Casas

Born: 1484

Death: 1566

Biography:

Bartolomé de las Casas was a Spanish clergyman, writer, and activist best known for his work as an historian and social reformer. He arrived in Hispaniola as a layman, then became a Dominican friar. He was appointed as the first resident Bishop of Chiapas, and the first officially appointed 'Protector of the Indians'. His extensive writings, the most famous being A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies and Historia de Las Indias, chronicle the first decades of colonization of the Caribbean islands. He described the atrocities committed by the colonizers against the indigenous peoples.