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In 1542, after years of witnessing Indian suffering and slavery - and the failure of his own attempts to create a humane settlement - Las Casas wrote A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies. A work of great passion and documentary vividness, it embodies his belief that the early evangelizing vision of Christopher Columbus was corrupted by later conquistadores into a genocidal colonization. Like a distant forefather of the Enlightenment, he argues that the Indians should be regarded as human, and entitled to the basic rights of mankind. This makes compelling reading and carries all the urgency of a petition written at a moment in history when it still seemed possible to reverse the tide.
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