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Audiobook edition · 14 h 9 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What happens when a Spanish colonist becomes a fierce critic of the empire he once serves?
In this biography, Francis Augustus MacNutt follows Bartholomew de Las Casas from his youth in Seville to Hispaniola and his change from colonist to defender of Indigenous peoples. A priest, bishop and writer, Las Casas challenges his own countrymen over the treatment of the native peoples of the Americas.
His campaign leads through petitions at the Spanish court, experiments in peaceful settlement and arguments over conquest and faith. MacNutt draws on chronicles and Las Casas’s writings, including long extracts from the Brief Account of the Destruction of the Indies. Kings, councillors, friars and soldiers enter a struggle whose stakes are human lives.
What you’ll discover
- A change of conscience Follow a priest and landholder as he turns against the colonial system around him.
- An empire under challenge Enter the Spanish court, where Las Casas presses those who make the laws.
- Peace put to the test Explore his attempts to replace conquest by soldiers with peaceful settlement and conversion.
- The argument at Valladolid Encounter the debate over whether spreading the faith can justify war against native peoples.
- An advocate in his words Read extracts from Las Casas’s writings within MacNutt’s openly admiring account of his life.
Who will love it
This book will please readers of Spanish colonial history, admirers of moral courage, and anyone drawn to biography built on real letters, sermons and court scenes.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A Seville Scholar Sails for the New World
- Columbus Opens the Door to Indian Slavery
- The Planter Priest Who Saw and Did Nothing
- One Sermon Text Changes a Life in 1514
- Courts, Cardinals and the Bishop of Burgos
- Charles V, Flemish Friends and a Regretted Mistake
- A Dream Colony Fails on the Pearl Coast
- Peace Without a Sword in the Land of War
- The New Laws, a Bishop's Chair and the Mobs of Chiapa
- Facing Sepulveda and the Verdict of Time
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Bartolomeo de Las Casas: vita, apostolato e scritti
by Francis Augustus MacNutt · 1909
A planter priest in Cuba reads one Bible passage and frees his Indians, then spends fifty years fighting for them.
Challenging5–10 hours to readItaliano
Learn a language with challenging classicsSpagnoloFranceseTedescoItalianoGiapponesePortogheseIngleseHow we measure levels
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In short
What makes a rich planter, a man with slaves working his mines, give everything up and spend a long life fighting his own countrymen? Bartholomew de Las Casas did exactly that.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A Seville Scholar Sails for the New World
Bartholomew de Las Casas was born in Seville in 1474 into a family of French descent. He studied law at Salamanca, where Dominican professors taught him the philosophy of Aristotle in the school of Thomas Aquinas.
His father sailed with Columbus on the second voyage and came home in 1496 with an Indian boy as a present for his son. Queen Isabella was angry. She demanded the return of all Indians taken to Spain in slavery, and the boy was among them. So the future apostle of freedom first appears as a slaveholder, forced by royal order to give up his property.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 13 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1909
- Language
- Italiano
- Level
- Challenging
Cite this edition
MacNutt, Francis Augustus. Bartholomew de Las Casas; His Life, Apostolate, and Writings. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/bartholomew-de-las-casas-his-life-apostolate-and-writings.
MacNutt, F. A. (2026). Bartholomew de las Casas; his life, apostolate, and writings. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/bartholomew-de-las-casas-his-life-apostolate-and-writings (Original work published 1909)
MacNutt, Francis Augustus. Bartholomew de Las Casas; His Life, Apostolate, and Writings. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/bartholomew-de-las-casas-his-life-apostolate-and-writings.
@book{macnutt2026bartholomew,
author = {MacNutt, Francis Augustus},
title = {Bartholomew de Las Casas; His Life, Apostolate, and Writings},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/bartholomew-de-las-casas-his-life-apostolate-and-writings},
note = {First published 1909}
}
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What is Bartholomew de Las Casas known for?
He was a Spanish priest and later bishop who spent over fifty years arguing that the Indians of the Americas were free, rational people. He helped shape the New Laws of 1542 and debated Sepulveda at Valladolid in 1550.
What is the Brevissima Relacion?
It is a short account Las Casas finished in 1542 describing Spanish cruelty in the Indies. It was printed in Seville in 1552 and soon translated across Europe. MacNutt includes a full English translation at the end of this book.
Did Las Casas begin African slavery in America?
MacNutt says no. The slave trade already existed, and Las Casas's proposal about enslaved Africans was one small part of a larger plan. He later regretted it deeply and condemned all slavery as unjust.
The author
Francis Augustus MacNutt
1863–1927 · American Catholic writer and diplomat
Francis Augustus MacNutt was an American Roman Catholic writer and diplomat. He was born in Richmond, Indiana, in 1863 and died in 1927. He wrote Bartholomew de Las Casas: His Life, Apostolate, and Writings, published in 1909. He also translated the letters of Hernán Cortés into English.
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