Synopses & Reviews
Review
"Lewis Hanke has done more than anyone else in this century to make the 'apostle of the Indians' known to the Anglo-Saxon world."—New York Review of Books
"Will provide the reader of Las Casas's treatise with a useful guide to the labyrinth of his thought."—TLS
"Hanke puts Las Casas in perspective as a shaper and exponent of a movement."—Latin American Research Review
Synopsis
A Study of the Disputation between Bartlome de Las Casas and Juan Gines de Sepulveda on the religious and iltellectual capacity of the American Indians.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
I. The Nature of the American Indians According to the Spaniards
The Controversy up to 1550
The Bull Sublimis Deus
Should Indians Be Educated?
The Retraction of Domingo de Betanzos
"A Deadly Enemy of the Indians": The Royal Historian Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdes
Oviedo's Basic Views on Indians
II. Prelude to the Battle At Valladolid Between Las Casas and Sepúleda
Preliminary Skirmishings, 1547-1550
The Sessions at Valladolid
Sepúlveda's Position
III. Analysis of Las Casas's Treatise
The Two Treatises Prepared by Las Casas to Combat Sepúlveda
An Overview of the Argument
The First Section: Las Casas's Response to Sepúlveda's Four Reasons for Justifying War Against the Indians in Order to Convert Them
The Second Section: Las Casas's Comments on the Authorities Cited by Sepúlveda to Support His Argument
IV. The Aftermath of the Conflict
Echoes of the Controversy to 1573
Continued Conflict on the Capacity of the Indians
Peanuts, Polarization, Polemics, and Paranoia
A Summation
Appendices
Bibliogrpahy and References
Index