This is a video of the trial in Spain that determined if Native Americans were real humans or not, and if they should be used as slaves or not. It is in several sections, you will have to negotiate through them all to get through the entire trial, but it is worth it if you want to learn about the history of racism and how the Church struggled with trying to justify slavery in order to support capitalism and wealth for themselves and for all of Europe during this time in history. Do not watch this if you have a squeamish heart, because it goes into graphic detail about the things that the Church and Spaniards were doing to the indigenous population in the Americas. The result of the trial was that they should not use Native Americans as slaves (although it did not improve the lives of Natives or change the racism that had already been established in the hearts of the people by that point), but then they decided it was OK to use Africans instead...thus the beginning of the African slave trade began with this trial. It is probably the most famous trial in history, only they dont teach this in history class unless you are fortunate enough to get to go to a college class about racism, colonialism, and slavery. They conveniently have censored things like this out of the minds of most people, so that they wont remember how foolish our ancestors were when it came to recognizing other humans...despite the color of their skin. Never forget where we came from, never stop learning about world history, never stop searching for where the idea of slavery and racism was born. Otherwise, it will happen over and over and over simply out of ignorance. (Wikipedia) The Valladolid debate (1550–1551) concerned the treatment of natives of the New World. Held in the Colegio de San Gregorio, in the Spanish city of Valladolid, it consisted of two opposing views about the colonization of the Americas. Dominican friar and Bishop of Chiapas Bartolomé de las Casas argued that the Amerindians were free men in the natural order and deserved the same treatment as others, according to Catholic theology. Opposing him was humanist scholar Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda, who insisted that in order to uproot crimes that offend nature the Indians should be punished and therefore reducing them to slavery or serfdom was in accordance with Catholic theology and natural law. Although both Las Casas and Sepúlveda later claimed to have won the disputation, no clear record supporting either claim exists. The affair served to establish Las Casas as the primary defender of the Indians and saw the New Laws of 1542 upheld, providing some momentum to weaken the encomienda system further. Though it did not completely reverse the situation, the laws achieved some improvement in the treatment of Indians. They also reflected a concern for morality and justice in 16th century Spain, that surfaced in other colonial powers centuries later.
Posted on: Sun, 11 Jan 2015 14:33:46 +0000
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