Las Casas, Bartolome de
Las Casas, Bartolom de (1474–1566), a Spanish missionary in Latin America. Called the Apostle of the Indies, he carried on a long crusade against mistreatment of the Indians. Las Casas was born in Seville. He went to Hispaniola in 1502 and was made a priest in 1510, the first to be ordained in the Americas. In 1520–21 he made an unsuccessful attempt to found a model Indian mission in Venezuela. In 1536–38 Las Casas won many converts in Guatemala. He was bishop of Chiapas, Mexico, 1544–47.
Las Casas spent much time in Spain pleading the cause of the Indians. In 1542 Charles V issued the New Laws forbidding Indian enslavement, but the laws were not enforced. Las Casas wrote several histories on Spanish colonization, including La Destruccin de las Indias (1552). He died in July 1566.