Las Casas proposed bringing Africans to the West Indies to spare Indians

Evidence

Not unexpectedly, Las Casas, whose bitter charges against the conquistadors and whose calculations of the terrifying numbers of Indian deaths had done much toward obtaining the New Laws from Charles V, assumed full responsibility. He wrote of himself in his Historia general de las Indias: “The priest Las Casas was the first to suggest that one should introduce Africans to the West Indies. He did not know what he was doing.” — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 629

Categorization

Category: Factual Claims

• QUESTION: The irony — the Indian’s defender advocating the importation of Africans — is the founding paradox of the Atlantic slave trade worth chasing further in primary sources.

Related

• Las Casas himself proposed importing Africans to replace dying Indians (similarity 0.92)
• Las Casas proposed African enslavement as Indian replacement (similarity 0.91)
• The advocacy of Las Casas directly channeled African slavery into the Americas (similarity 0.82)
• Las Casas was only one link in the chains of African enslavement (similarity 0.82)

Broader Connections

• African slaves replaced decimated Indians and colonial policy shifted to importing bozales only #expands (0.70) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 638
• Las Casas was only one link in the chains of African enslavement #expands (0.60) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 631
• Escaped slaves dominated Indians and raided settlements in Colombia #complicates (0.40) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 1958